College of Charleston Women’s & Gender Studies Program to host series

College of Charleston Women’s & Gender Studies Program (WGS) will host “Land, Body, History,” a WGS series exploring vectors of knowledge from global Black feminist perspectives. The weeklong series of events will be held September 25-29, 2023.

The series will establish WGS’ inaugural Scholar-in-Residence. The WGS program will host an academic scholar from outside the College of Charleston faculty for a week of guest lecturing in WGS courses and at WGS events, as well as engage with the campus and local communities.

WGS’ inaugural Scholar-in-Residence is Régine Jean-Charles. She is Director of Africana Studies, Dean’s Professor of Culture and Social Justice, and Professor of Africana Studies and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University. She is also a founding board member of A Long Walk Home, a national art organization that empowers young people to end violence against girls and women.

A Black feminist literary scholar and cultural critic working at the intersection of race, gender, and justice, her scholarship and teaching in Africana Studies include expertise on Black France, Sub-Saharan Africa, Caribbean literature, Black girlhood, Haiti, and the diaspora.

Jean-Charles is the author of “Conflict Bodies: The Politics of Rape Representation in the Francophone Imaginary” (The Ohio State University Press, 2014), “The Trumpet of Conscience Today “(Orbis Press, 2021), and “Looking for Other Worlds: Black Feminism and Haitian Fiction” (University of Virginia Press, 2022).

Events include:

September 26, 2023

Diaspora, Conflict Bodies, and the Power of Art

A panel discussion with Régine Jean-Charles, College of Charleston professors Kameelah Martin and Robert Sapp and College of Charleston graduate Cady Walker (’23). The program will be moderated by Lauren Ravalico, Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program.  The program will be held in the Septima Clark Auditorium at the Thaddeaus Street Jr. Education Center starting at 1:45 p.m.

September 27, 2023

• West African Foodways: Talk and Taste – A discussion, cooking demo, and sampling with Chef Binta N’Daw Young (Bintü Atelier), College of Charleston history professor John Cropper, and Régine Jean-Charles. Moderated by Lauren Ravalico. The event will be held in the culinary amphitheater located at Trident Tech Palmer Campus, 66 Columbus Street beginning at 2:15 p.m.

September 28, 2023

• WGS Intersections: La Vaughn Belle, a Conversation – In partnership with the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art, WGS will host an interdisciplinary salon to view and discuss the current solo exhibition of artist La Vaugh Belle, When the Land Meets the Body. Panelists include Tamara Butler, executive director of the Avery Research Center; College of Charleston professors Deb Bidwell, Mari Crabtree and  Shannon Eaves. The program will be moderated by Mary Jo Fairchild with the College of Charleston Libraries.  The event will be held at the Halsey Institute for Contemporary Art and at halsey.cofc.edu/live beginning at 4:00 p.m.

All events are open to the public.