Non-Aligned Utopias: Lecture and Panel

Presented on October 9, 2019 at 6:00 p.m. in the Bill Moore Student Success Center, Clary Theater.It is this rise of African art on a vast global scale that brought the Sengalese-French artist and curator Oulimata Gueye to Tech’s campus to participate in a round table discussion hosted by the French Club at Tech as well as the French department within the School of Modern Languages. Gueye’s work currently focuses on the impact of digital technology on urban popular culture and Africa. Her research is based on science fiction products like literature, film and video games which reveal the emergence of art from Africa as it enters into the global stage.Susana M. Morris is a scholar of Black Feminism, Black Digital Media, and Afrofuturism. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech.Subha Xavier is an Associate Professor of French at Emory University.Gladys M. Francis is an Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies at Georgia State University. Her research involves French and Francophone Studies; Theory and cultural Studies, Africana Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Visual and Media Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She explores issues of identify formation, (rural/urban) resilience, race and ethnicity, gender-based violence, individual and collective trauma and social cohesion – in France, the French Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.Alix Pierre is Director of Cultural Orientation and Lecturer in World Languages & Literature and African Diaspora and the World at Spelman College.Samba Sy is a Lecturer of French in the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Tech.Runtime: 99:47 minutesNew technologies and the soaring accessibility of media production in recent decades have allowed African countries to challenge their place on the cultural world scene. Critic and curator Oulimata Gueye’s research focuses on the impact of digital technology on urban popular culture in Africa, and on the imaginary worlds it produces. The round table will center on Oulimata Gueye’s project Non-Aligned Utopias with scholars working on Afrofuturism and African history, media and expression, such as Dr. Susanna Morris (Georgia Tech), Dr. Subha Xavier (Emory University), Dr. Gladys Francis (Georgia State University), Dr. Alix Pierre (Spelman College) and Samba Sy (Georgia Tech). This event is co-organized by the Cultural services of the French Embassy in the United States and the School of Modern Languages and the School of Literature, Media,and Communication at Georgia Tech