Media Advisory: Wednesday, Feb. 7, 9:30 a.m.-noon, Cal State L.A.
"Cultural Trauma" 200 years after
UK slave trade abolished
Trans-Atlantic video symposium to link U. of London, Cal State L.A.
Note to editors and news directors: Two hundred years ago, the slave trade was abolished in the United Kingdom. Two days from now a live trans-Atlantic video symposiumÂtitled ÂThe Cultural Trauma of SlaveryÂÂwill link about 10 professors and students from Cal State L.A. with 10 counterparts from the University of London to yield British and American perspectives on the slave tradeÂs relevance to each countryÂs history and condition.
Reporters are welcome to cover the symposium from the Cal State L.A. end (in King Hall Room C-172).
Among the key tangents of discussion:
ÂThe 1781 ÂZong massacre, in which 132 slaves were drowned, ordered tossed overboard by the British captain of the slave ship ÂZongÂÂand the captainÂs subsequent claim for salvage insurance.
ÂÂThe Black Atlantic, a 1992 book that illuminates how Black subcultures are linked to specific nations, and also how a larger shared culture transcends political boundaries and extends around the Atlantic basin.
The symposium also commemorates Black History Month. Funded by the British Council and sponsored by University of London and Cal State L.A.Âs Center for Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, it will launch a series of similar exchanges between the universities. Cal State L.A. English Professor Lauri RameyÂthe symposiumÂs co-organizer and the poetry centerÂs directorÂcalls it Âthe beginning of an ongoing and fertile creative-research exchange to facilitate trans-Atlantic understanding and dialogue.Â
WHAT: ÂThe Cultural Trauma of Slavery, a live trans-Atlantic video symposium linking Cal State L.A. and the University of London.
WHEN: 9:30 a.m. to noon, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2007.
(5:30 to 8 p.m. in London):
9:30 -- Welcome/introductions
9:40 -- Lead paper from London
10:00 -- Response from Cal State L.A.
10:15-10:50 -- Offline discussions
10:50-11:40 -- Open discussions between both sides (probably the most Âvisual opportunity)
11:40-noon -- Conclusion and evaluation Noon -- Lauri Ramey, others available for interviews
WHERE: King Hall, Room C-172, Cal State L.A. (and at a University of London site simultaneously)
WHO:
About 20 students and scholars, evenly split between Cal State L.A. and University of London.
Symposium contact:
Cal State L.A. Professor Lauri Ramey, (323) 343-4165 or [email protected].
Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 190,000 alumniÂwith a wide variety of interests, ages and backgroundsÂreflect the cityÂs dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, to be housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center now under construction. www.calstatela.edu
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