Sustain
Africa Awareness Week
Bridgewater State University
Monday March 28-Monday April 4
Olivier van Beemen - Heineken in Africa: Island of Perfection in a Sea of Misery?
Monday March 28
Time and Modality: TBC
For over six years, investigative journalist Olivier van Beemen critically researched the highly lucrative African business of Dutch beer company Heineken. He uncovered many scandals and structural bad corporate behaviour, from actual involvement in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda to broad-scale sexual abuse of women - a sharp contrast with the company’s public statements on business ethics and sustainability. In this lecture, Van Beemen will give insights into his research and some of its most prominent case-studies.
Anna Turley - Women’s Rights and Feminist Organizing in Contemporary South Africa
Tuesday March 29
Zoom Lecture
12:30 - 1:45
Women's rights advocate and consultant based in Cape Town, South Africa.
In this talk, the former Acting Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) and a consultant working with feminist leaders and organizations will discuss women's rights and feminist organizing in contemporary South Africa. In her talk, Anna will explore how activists have responded to the contradictions of a country which has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world but nonetheless remains a deeply unequal society with extremely high levels of gender based violence, and what hopes exist among activists for a more just future in South Africa.
Sultan Somjee – One Who Dreams is Called a Prophet
Thursday March 31
Zoom Lecture
11.00-12.15pm
Women's rights advocate and consultant based in Cape Town, South Africa.
In this talk, the former Acting Executive Director of the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) and a consultant working with feminist leaders and organizations will discuss women's rights and feminist organizing in contemporary South Africa. In her talk, Anna will explore how activists have responded to the contradictions of a country which has one of the most progressive constitutions in the world but nonetheless remains a deeply unequal society with extremely high levels of gender based violence, and what hopes exist among activists for a more just future in South Africa.
Ziddi Msangi - Stories Embedded in Cloth: Kanga as a form of Visual Communication
Thursday March 31
Modality: TBC
2.00-3.15pm
In this lecture, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at UMASS Dartmouth Ziddi Msangi looks at the intersectional space between public and private that Kanga cloth occupy and the specific context that Kanga cloth are used in Tanzania and Kenya. The corpus of this study is based on visual research and life story interviews of four women who sell Kanga in the Mchafukoge market, conducted during the summer of 2018. This project considers Kanga as a visual text wrapped in history, social protest and gender politics.
Annual Symposium of the Department of Art & Art History
Kathryn Wysocki Gunsch – Art of the Benin Kingdom: Authorship and Ownership
Monday April 4
Zoom Lecture
5.00-6.30pm
Former Director of Collections, Department Head and Teel Curator for African & Oceanic Art at the MFA Boston and newly appointed Deputy Director of the MIT Museum will discuss her research into the patronage and authorship of the monumental installation of bronze plaques in the Benin Kingdom, Nigeria, as well as the rapidly shifting conversation around ownership and display of Benin art.
