The ‘history’ of our HBCUs has always been emphasized, for you won’t find a proud student or alum who do not know their history. Paine College is one HBCU that has done a magnificent job of preserving their history, and making it relevant to today.
During the week of February 6-9, Paine College will be hosting its 31st Annual Conference on the Black Experience. The conference will “explore and celebrate contributions to the amalgam of history in the Americas, in particular North America, made by women of African Ancestry. Conference participants will examine the critical roles played by Africana women and how these roles have shaped [and continue to shape] the characteristic spirit of American culture.” (Natasha Carter, Director of Communications & Marketing) Former professors Dr. Leslie J. Pollard, and E. Fuller Callaway have taken on the task of coordinating this historic conference.
What makes the Conference on the Black Experience so unique is that it was conceptualized in February of 1891! To still continue the legacy of their predecessors is truly a testament to the college’s love and dedication to the community. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, and here is more on the Spelman alum:
Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall will be the keynote speaker for the Conference on the Black Experience. Guy-Sheftall was recently named the president of the National Women’s Studies Association, a professional organization that is “dedicated to leading the field of women’s studies, as well as its teaching, learning, research, and service wherever they be found.” Guy-Sheftall is the founding director of the Spelman College Women’s Research and Resource Center and the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women’s Studies. She has published a number of texts within African-American and Women’s Studies which have been noted as seminal works by other scholars, including the first anthology on Black women’s literature, Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature (Doubleday, 1980), which she coedited with Roseann P. Bell and Bettye Parker Smith; her dissertation, Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920 (Carlson, 1991); Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought (New Press, 1995); and an anthology she co-edited with Rudolph Byrd entitled Traps: African-American Men on Gender and Sexuality (Indiana University Press, 2001). Her most recent publication is a book coauthored with Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African-American Communities (Random House, 2003). In 1983 she became founding co-editor of Sage: A Scholarly Journal of Black Women, devoted exclusively to the experiences of women of African descent.
For additional information and schedules, contact the School of Arts and Sciences at 706-821- 8326 or visit the website and click on Conference on the Black Experience at http://www.paine.edu/cobe.
