So they made a film in France about Alexandre Dumas, père, called L Autre Dumas, starring Gerard Depardieu.  Look at the photo of Dumas and think about how Gerard Depardieu looks, and hopefully you will see the issue.

The thing that is very interesting is that Le CRAN has attacked the film for this in a post on their website that makes me quite happy (really, I am so glad these types of organizations exist now in France), is that Dumas himself, in ” Mes Mémoires (French Edition)“ discusses the issues he has because of his blackness, the fears his mother had before he was born etc.

My favorite part, because it is so true, is the following quote:

Trop peu de nos compatriotes savent qu’Alexandre Dumas, l’un des plus grands auteurs français, était un métis, qu’il était considéré à son époque comme Noir et qu’il se décrivait lui-même comme un « nègre » aux « cheveux crépus » - Le Cran

Too few of our countrymen know that Alexandre Dumas, one of the greatest French writers, was mixed, he was consider black  in his time he described himself as a “negro” with ” frizzy hair” — translation, Jade

So why is this important?  For me personally, learning that Alexandre Dumas was black like my family (in that most American black people are “métisse”),  was life changing.  I was familiar with his work, specifically the Three Musketeers (below) and the Count of Monte Cristo from a very young age, even if i was not familiar with him, the man.

The day I learned about his ethnic/racial heritage was life changing for me. I took it the same way I took Obama. Here is this name, this person who changed the face of the world, this person who is seen as one of the best and a (French) cultural icon, whose work has turned in to so many plays and films etc. and he looks like my cousin. He looks like my future children. He looks like me. That experience showed me that, despite the message I received from those around me, the only true limits of my ability to achieve and to reach would be from me. It meant so much more than people telling me to reach for the stars, because here was someone who had already done it, despite all the odds and circumstances that were not in his favor… and he did it without denying who he was or where he came from.

So, the film bothers me. People do not know about the heritage of Alexandre Dumas, and films like this mis-educate people (and that isn””t even with acknowledging the assistant issue that apparently exists in the film, making Dumas in the film a figurative “Nègre littéraire” the idiomatic French term for ghost writer, rather than the literal “Nègre littéraire” that he was).

I mean, I”m not going to disregard all other theoretical approaches.  I am very open t experimentation… but, I know me.  Semiotics with a big splash of ethnography and I am good to go.

/end stream of consciousness

No really. I don’t understand. I mean, we never really learn or think about Submarine Communications Cables, we just use them all the time. I was listening to a radio program a few nights ago, and they were discussing how the west coast of Africa has only one fiber optic cable to carry high speed internet access.   When I did a web search I found numerous articles from… oh a bit over a week ago talking about east Africa just now getting a fiber optic cable.

I am having a really hard time finding information about the ownership of these cables and who pays for their development and maintenance, but I wonder what narrative could be constructed examining the decisions that led to development and lack their of in Africa.

I was in a state of disbelief when the reports first started about Michael Jackson’s passing. A mega fan I was not, but like many people who grew up in the 80s with parents that went through their teens in the 70s, I grew up on Jackson 5 and watched Michael Jackson solo career as it evolved and eventually demised. In fact, seeing Thriller on the TV is one of my most vivid memories from my youth. To me, Michael Jackson really encapsulated and era.

I always want to do music that influences and inspires each generation. Let’s face it, who wants mortality.

-Ebony, Dec. 2007: Cover Story The Thrill is Back

Anyway, since there are millions of posts about Michael Jackson, and this one is really for my benefit, I will do that thing where I post links to old magazine articles that are of interest about Michael Jackson:

Jul 30, 1970 – Jet: Talking About (bigger than the Beatles)

Mar 16, 1972 – Jet Article: Michael Makes it Big Alone

Jun 1976 – Ebony Jr. Cover Story: Michael Jackson’s Worldwide Scrapbook

Mar 31, 1977 – Jet Cover Story: Michael Jackson: A Young Bachelor Married to Music

Aug 16, 1979 – Jet Cover Story: Michael Jackson: Nearly 21…

Oct 1981 – Ebony Cover Story: Is Michael leaving the Jacksons?

Dec 1982 – Ebony Cover Story: Michael

May 1984 – Ebony Cover Story: Michael Jackson: The Worlds Greatest Entertainer

Dec 1984 – Cover Story: The Michael Jackson Nobody Knows

Apr 8, 1985 – Jet Cover Story: Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie’s Song Earns Millions for Africa’s Famine Victims

Sep 1987 – Ebony Cover Story: Michael Jackson Comes Back!

June 1988 – Ebony Cover Story: A New and Revealing Look at Michael Jackson

Feb 27, 1989 – Jet Cover Story: Michael Jackson Quits Concert Stage After World Tour Sets New Records

Feb 17, 1992 – Jet Cover Story: Jackson, Michael: Remember the Time

May 1992 – Ebony Cover Story: Michael Jackson: Crowned in Africa, Pop Music King Tells Real Story of Controversial Trip

Sep 13, 1993 – Jet Cover Story: Family and Fans Support Michael Jackson in Child Abuse Investigation

Oct 1994 – Ebony Cover Story: Michael Tells ‘where I Met Lisa Marie and how I Proposed’

Jun-Jul 1995 – Vibe Cover Story: Action Jackson

Mar 2002 – Vibe Vixen Cover Story: Michael Jackson Unbreakable

I guess I will stop there. There are so many stories. I guess these ones represent how I remember Michael Jackson. This is the arc I know, from the stories about him shining with the Jackson 5, to the trial in the 90s, to the attempted comebacks there after. Surprisingly, I have no memories of him and his drug addiction and the burn incident is more of a blur.

I came across the following video about the myth of African unity on YouTube from Polity. The speaker is Dr. Paul-Simon Handy of the Institute for Security Studies. I found it very interesting and thought it raised a lot of good points people don’t often like to discuss or consider. The main ones that stood out to me are that Africa is a very diverse continent that is not all black and does not have a common power to rise against any longer. Basically, we are in a post-post-Colonial world at this point, and it is up to governments, people and academics to determine that that is going to look like. I have been doing a lot of thinking on the idea of a new Pan-Africanism, wondering what it would look like and what the goals would be.

From the YouTube video description:

The idea of Pan-Africanism should be revisited, with the aim of reorienting it towards service delivery, performance and efficient governance.

The French text on the backdrop says “Knowledge emancipates Africa”.

Knowledge and access to that knowledge has been shown time and time again to have a positive impact on society. That is one of the reasons I feel so passionately about making sure that young people are able to use the internet, provided they have access to it, to look up meaningful information and connect with each other. I believe that with more and more dialogues happening, there is no limit on the ideas and solutions people are capable of coming up with. Knowledge does emancipate, and it also opens up new worlds.

When I think of the original Pan-Africanism, it had strong links to slavery. This meant that it reflected the entire diaspora. Where do black people from outside of Africa fit in to this new Pan-Africanism? If the global coverage of Obama showed anything, it is that even if we are not necessarily unified, we do look at major success stories and see our own potential, regardless of our background or country of origin. We see it and think that we can and will do better and know that we are the writers of our future. Our common histories link our successes, failures and futures.

I hope that in the future I am in a position where I can help create a future filled with knowledge and access.

It is interesting when you look at the work of scholars across fields and see the term post-colonial all over the place.  I admit, I love post-colonial theory, because I think it is fascinating,.  As a person of color, it has colored my world view and my academic experience.  Even now, as I sit outside of the academy, it is something that remains an important aspect of my reading in terms of news, art, etc.  There is a trend I have noticed though, especially in academia and GOs/NGOs.  Often when people discuss regions or populations that are direct decedent of the legacy of colonialism, they are referred to as the “other” and they are not included (and if they are, they are not visible) in the high profile conversations outside of artist expression.

I think the use of the term “other” is so loaded.  It implies an inherent dichotomy against the “standard” and keeps the relationship of the colonizer/colonized alive and kicking.  I can’t help but wonder if this is more hurtful or helpful.  I understand it is necessary to illustrate the power relationship, even in modern discussion, and binaries are the easy way.  However, “other” does not have a clear opposite.  It simply relegates people to being outsiders indefinitely because there is not a way to stop being “other”, no matter where you history takes you.

Art forms are extremely powerful as they are designed to be consumed by anyone who has access.  They are a mode of communication that can be coded and read differently based on the origin of the reader.  I love that throughout colonization people continued to make art that reflected their unique elasticities, even if they were influenced by the colonizer.  I also love that the art is still a big part, and it kept traditions alive through the ritualistic aspects of creating and ingesting art.  One of the best examples of this to me is music.  Even when artists sang in the language of their colonizer, and when they often continue to today, they use traditional instruments, rhythms etc.

So, what happens outside of art (in the academy)?  It is hard to tell.  Institutions aren’t very open most of the time, and when they collaborate, it is behind closed doors.  Now, I know there are plenty of people that are decedents of the colonized who are working in the academy. My hope is that they are included in collaborations as much as possible, and these collaborations don’t just happen between people in western universities. Now, I know they don’t, but a lot of times, that seems to be the case. I guess, what I am really wanting overall is to just see more diversity in the academy so that we get to hear more perspectives on what it means today to be in the post-colonial world.

Ok, I’m done rambling. I’m not even sure if all of this makes sense.

There is so much more to digitizing the academy than distance learning courses online. I am actually somewhat against those. I feel that the experience of being in a seminar of people, where there is face to face communication and group interaction is an essential experience, especially when learning. It helps people gain public speaking skills, learn to collaborate, and think quickly and on their feet and then voice their thoughts. Being in an environment with minimal distractions where the goal is simply to absorb knowledge and think critically is not something that can successfully be duplicated through a computer screen. However, distance learning can be a great supplement to face to face classes. I have heard so much talk about how students have become harder and harder to teach and seem to have difficulty learning difficult concepts compared to students of the past. I think a large part of this might be because they don’t have access to things that would help them gain their critical thinking skills. Having more advance discourses available online could be a tool to help spark the curiosity of some of those students. After all, you never know where a Google search might lead you.

An example of this, one of the talks that I really enjoyed was on slavery in the French Antilles. While I was able to speak with the speaker etc, I found myself desiring to learn more as this was something that I never went over in depth in my education. A simple google books search brings up over 90 results for slavery in French, all written in the 1800s. This is a great resource, however, I would love to be able to find more recent writing and possibly older archives on the same subject just as easily. Right now the only things available are from the archives of some US Universities it seems. From a general Google search I find the Digital Archaeological Archive on Comparative Slavery . Another site I am familiar with on this subject is Voyages: The Transatlantic Slave Trade Database. However, that was not in my first page of results when I searched for ‘digital slavery’.  Further, it would be great to be able to easily find the names of those academics and institutes that are working on this across disciplines.

An Aside: I would like to quickly be able to find who is working on this and if they are open to being contacted and collaborating with other working on the same subject. It would make sense to have a white pages online of academics by subject and/or topic of interest that is searchable so people can find and contact those with similar interests across disciplines. I don’t think something like this needs to be as robust as facebook . I also don’t think it necessarily needs to be completely open to the public. However, having at least the information about who is doing what would be helpful for people who want to go to school for specific topics.

So, what do I think departments in the Humanities and Social Sciences should be doing? George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media is an exception rather than a rule in the humanities and social sciences. However, their goals are what all departments should be striving for in the new Open Source and searchable world we live in: On teaching & learning:

Providing free access to primary sources, building high-quality online teaching modules, and offering instruction on critical thinking skills.

On research & tools:

Developing publications and applications to define digital humanities for a new generation of scholars, librarians and museum professionals.

On collecting and exhibiting:

Bringing history to audiences worldwide by collecting digital records, archiving documents of the past, and presenting historical exhibits.

This is what I want to see more departments moving towards. Students coming in are used to being able to find what they are looking for easily and quickly. I love the library. I love researching. But, to not move towards a model like CHNM is doing is like trying to do advanced math without a calculator. Things are now more open and accessible, and while it is a great experience to travel to a library and search and discover in a basement for rare documents etc, that should no longer be necessary to find information, nor should people need to be face to face to collaborate (though again, I think this is amazingly important).

While it is the nature of the academy and those involved to be elitist and specialized, it seems that their reluctance to move in to the digital realm is more of a hindrance than they realize. Academics and researches tend to be extremely passionate about the work they are doing. However if the way they are doing the work does not evolve to accommodate new modes of communication and learning, their work will lose its relevance much sooner than they realize.  For the academy, the source of information is extremely important, and for modernity, it is important that that source be open.  I hope that over the next few years we will see more and more departments moving towards and interdisciplinary, digital and open approach.

PDF for the workshop can be downloaded here: http://econ.as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/10554/workshop_march_20093.pdf

Memory, Translation, and the Transmission of Knowledge Inaugural Workshop of the new NYU-CNRS research center, March 5-6

The Center seeks to explore the diversity of systems of thought and knowledge in the world and in different eras, the modes through which knowledge is constituted and/or institutionalized, the interaction or isolation, and the permeability or conflictuality of cultures.

The Center’s focus is the relations between universal and differential cultures, systems of knowledge and understanding; across disciplines, it will promote research on the translatability of systems, the transmission and transformation of cultures, concepts and theories. The plurality of histories and languages, as well as the complexities of memory, consciousness and its philosophical accounts, will also form part of our initial projects.

Thursday, March 5th

Venue: CIRHUS conference room, 4 Washington Square North

9:30 am : Welcome Address
Bruno Laurioux, Director of Institute of Humanities and Social sciences, CNRS
Richard Foley, Dean of Faculty of Arts and Science
9:45: Introduction: Emilienne Baneth-Nouailhetas (CNRS), Edward Berenson (NYU), Christophe J. Goddard (CNRS)
10: 00 am to 12: 00 pm: Memory and memorialisation; chair: Edward Berenson (NYU)

• Cliff Chanin (Senior Advisor, September 11 National Memorial Museum)
• Denis Peschanski (CNRS) and Ed Berenson (NYU): “History and Memory”
• Joseph Ledoux (NYU): “Memory, emotion and the brain”
• F. de Vignemont (CNRS), Ned Block (NYU) : “Memory Inside and Out”
• Brigitte Sion (NYU): “Performing memory”

12:00 to 12:30 pm: Discussion
12:30 to 1:30 pm: LUNCH
1:30 p.m. to 3:00 pm: Transmissions and religions; chair: Randall White (NYU)

• Randall White (NYU): “The dialogue with the caves”: religion and the underground in Paleolithic France
• Christophe Goddard (CNRS): “Questioning syncretism and religious transitions: the Syrian Sanctuary in Rome and its recent archaeological discoveries (2005-2007)”
• Stefania Capone (CNRS): “Rethinking Religious Change: Transnationalism, Divination Practices, Ritual Borrowings “

3:00 pm to 3:30 pm: Discussion
3:30 pm to 4:00 pm: Coffee break
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm: Postcolonial theory: chair Robert Young (NYU)

• Robert Young (NYU); Cliff Siskin (NYU); Emilienne Baneth-Nouailhetas (CNRS): “Postcolonialism and Re:Enlightenment: An Experiment in Reconstituting knowledge.”
• Laetitia Zecchini (CNRS): “Knowledge and the ‘subaltern’: the dalit question as a contrapuntal exploration of postcolonialism.”
• Frederic Regard (CNRS-University Paris 4-Sorbonne): “Sir Richard Francis Burton, the ‘Amateur Barbarian’”.

5:30 pm to 6 pm: Discussion

Friday, March 6

Venue: CIRHUS conference room, 4 Washington Square North

9:30 am to 11:30 am
Translation and translatability chair: Barbara Cassin (CNRS)

• Barbara Cassin (CNRS), Emily Apter (NYU), Jacques Lezra (NYU): “Translating the Untranslatable”
• Muriel Debie (CNRS), Roger Bagnall (NYU): “Bilingualism in the Ancient Mediterranean area”
• Anca Vasiliu (CNRS): “The slippery semantics of ‘image’ in late Antiquity”

11:30 am to 12:00: Discussion
12 am to 1:30 pm: LUNCH
1:30 pm to 2:15 pm: Photography and film, visualization and transmission: chair Jean-Loup Bourget (ENS-CNRS)

• Jean-Loup Bourget (ENS-CNRS): “Fritz Lang from Berlin to Hollywood”
• Didier Aubert (CNRS – University Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle) : “Pictures against the picturesque – photography and Americanization in the early 20th-century”

2:15 pm to 2:45 pm: Discussion
2:45 pm to 3 pm: Coffee break
3:00 pm to 3:45 pm: Slavery, slaveries

• Frederique de Vignemont (CNRS) : “Habeas Corpus ; the sense of ownership of one’s body”
• Myriam Cottias (CNRS) : “Connected slaveries: the stakes for modern history”

3:45 pm to 4:15 pm: Discussion

4:30 pm: Conclusion of workshop: John Sexton, President of New York University Bruno Laurioux, Director of Institute of Humanities and Social sciences, CNRS
5:15 PM: Ground floor auditorium, 19 University Place

Screening of the film Tropiques Amers, the first cinematic treatment of slavery in French colonies ever shown on French television. Myriam Cottias, author of the film’s screenplay, will be with us for this special event.

7:00 PM: Reception. 19 University Place, Great Room.