Savannah State University will kick off its “Tell Them We Are Rising!: Exploring Slavery, Emancipation and the African-American Experience in Savannah and Southeast Georgia” project at 6 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 25, with a lecture on Lowcountry Africana heritage from New York University history professor Michael Gomez. The event will be held in Torian Auditorium in the Howard Jordan building on campus and is free and open to the public.
The founding director of the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD), Gomez is widely recognized for his research on African identities and the South, particularly the Lowcountry region. He is the editor and author of several books, including “Black Crescent: African Muslims in the Americas” and “Reversing Sail: A History of the African Diaspora,” and has written articles appearing in The Journal of African American History, Journal of Black Studies and numerous other publications. Prior to joining the faculty at NYU, Gomez was a history professor at both Spelman College and the University of Georgia.
Savannah State received a $99,929 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to fund the “Tell Them We Are Rising” project, in which a group of faculty from several academic disciplines will participate in lectures, colloquia, workshops and conferences. The initial phase of the project will focus on the historical periods of slavery and emancipation; public lectures and workshops are scheduled monthly from August 2011 and April 2012.
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