November 16, 2019
During this day-long workshop organized by Associate Professor of History Thabiti Willis, the participants shared their own expertise and explored opportunities for future collaborations. Professor Noëleen Murray, Director of the Wits City Institute at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa began the day with a presentation on architecture and urban design in Johannesburg during apartheid, particularly ways people imagined remaking space. Next, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Alabama – Birmingham Pam King discussed the construction of racism and segregation in Birmingham and the transition once legal segregation was overturned. Professor King examined how this transition occurred in four different neighborhoods of Birmingham. Following this, Head of Archives at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Wayne Coleman discussed the mission and activities of his institution, discussing the rich collection it houses. Next William H. Laird Professor of French and the Liberal Arts at Carleton Cherif Keita presented a shortened version of his 2014 documentary “Remembering Nokutela,” which chronicles his journey to find the gravesite of Nokutela Dube, an important female South African educator and missionary whose husband founded the organization that would become the African National Conference (ANC). Following lunch, Assistant Director of the Humanities Center for the Digital Humanities and Lecturer in History Austin Mason and GIS Specialist Wei-Hsin Fu presented on digital humanities and GIS to the participants, in order to provide a shared understanding of the tools the group may use in future collaborations. In all, the day was filled with stimulating conversations that explored comparative perspectives on race, segregation, space, place, and demographic changes as well as the possibilities for future collaborations.
Birmingham, the Johannesburg of the South
GIS Specialist Wei-Hsin Fu presents