July 4-15, 2011

The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples studies the migrations of African peoples through internal, regional and international and transnational movements. The Tubman Institute is concerned not only with the historical movements of Africans and people of African descent but also with their contemporary experiences. Part of our mandate is to share information about these movements and experiences with all groups of persons. Among the groups on whose experiences we focus are Africans and their descendants in Canada (African Canadians); these concerns are reflected in a special initiative in the Tubman Institute – “Spotlighting and Promoting African Canadian Experiences” (SPACE).

The Harriet Tubman Summer Institute will focus on guiding thirty (35) students (between 14-18 years old) through an “Introduction to African and African Diaspora Studies.” The African Diaspora refers to all the places to which Africans migrated and where they and their descendant now live. The Institute will help students to evaluate, collectively, the contributions of African peoples and cultures to the historical development of the Americas and their influence on new generations of youth.

To achieve those objectives professors, teachers, facilitators and 35 youth from formal school settings, after school programs and community groups will focus their attention on topics in relation with:
Africa and African Diaspora histories (that is, African descended communities outside of Africa)
The Slave trade in Africans and slave resistance (historical and contemporary representations)
African and African-descendent identities
Memory, community values like folkloric traditions in African, African Diaspora (African descended communities outside of Africa) and specifically the African Canadian contexts
Museums, archives and popular culture
Contemporary issues of histories of migrations, race, slavery, education, popular culture…
Introduction to technology to digitalize community historical records: working sessions, photographs, documents…

The daily activities will be run under the auspices of the Harriet Tubman Institute, York University.
The content will be delivered by professors at York University
The students will work as individuals and in groups facilitated by trained facilitators
The afternoon cultural activities will be facilitated by professors, graduate and undergraduate students at York University
The students will be provided with breakfast and lunch for the 10 days of the Summer Programme.

For more information about the Harriet Tubman Summer Institute, please contact:

Abubacar Fofana León            Professor Michele A. Johnson
SPACE Network                SPACE Network
Harriet Tubman Institute            Harriet Tubman Institute
York University                York University
[email protected]                [email protected]

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