The Center for Early Cultures invites you to:
Monday April 14, 2025
I.
Humanities Instructional Building Rm. 55 / 10:00am-4:00pm - Workshop
"Black African Presence and Representations in Early Modern Europe"
10:00-10:30am
Welcome & Introductory Note (Christophe LITWIN, European Languages and Studies & Philosophy, UCI)
10:30-12:00pm (Panel Chair: Lyle MASSEY, Art History, UCI)
Denva GALLANT (Art History, Rice University)
“Blackness, Black Africans and Giotto’s ‘Mocking of Christ’”
Bryan KEENE (Art History, Riverside City College)
"Beyond the Colonial Lens: Curatorial Interventions on Race in Premodern Art and Visual Culture"
12:00pm-1:00 pm Lunch Break
1:00-2:30 pm (Panel Chair: Nancy McLOUGHLIN, History, UCI)
Christophe LITWIN (ELS & Philosophy, UCI)
"The Early 17th-Century French Tragedies of a Cruel Moor and of Unfortunate Portuguese"
Wyatt WIGGINS (History, UCI)
“Under the Branding Iron: Marking, Identification, and Representation — the Birth of an Eighteenth-Century French Police State”
2:30-2:45 pm Beverages & Coffee Break
2:45 pm - 4:15 pm (Panel Chair: Alex BORUCKI, History, UCI)
Debra BLUMENTHAL (History, UCSB)
Observing "Jewish things" (coses iudaiques). Black women before the Inquisition.
Brett RUSHFORTH (History, Huntington Library)
“Diverse Progenies and Lineages”: Encounters with Blackness in Renaissance France
II.
McCormick Screening Room, HG 1700 / 5:00pm-6:45pm - Film Screening
"We Were Here - The Untold History of Black Africans in Renaissance Europe"
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu is an Afro-Italian and U.S. multi-hyphenate socially engaged artist, filmmaker and scholar based in New York. His work bridges past and present, exploring identity and race through historical remixing of archival materials. Kuwornu's films have been exhibited at the 60ᵗʰ Venice Art Biennale (2024), Museum of Moving Image (NY), Library of Congress, and international film festivals. More info: https://www.fredkuwornu.com
Please RSVP if you plan to attend the events
UCI Co-Sponsorships by:
Center for Early Cultures, Humanities Center, European Language and Studies, Comparative Literature, History, Art History, Critical Theory