March 28 – 30, 2007, James Callaghan Building, Swansea University. All Sessions took place in the James Callaghan Building
Unless Otherwise Noted
Conference Programme
Day 1: Wednesday, 28th March 2007
1pm – 3pm Registration
3pm - 3.20pm Formal Welcome to Delegates Professor Richard Davies, Vice-Chancellor, Swansea University
3.20pm - 3.30pm Gwenno Ffrancon, Media Studies, Swansea University, introduces Paul Robeson and Proud Valley
3.30pm – 5.00pm A rare screening of Paul Robeson in The Proud Valley.
We are indebted to the National Screen and Sound archive of Wales, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, for supplying the film, and to CANAL+ IMAGE UK LTD for allowing us to show it.
5pm – 5.30pm Tea and Coffee
5.30pm – 6.30pm Keynote 1Jeffrey C. Stewart, George Mason University. ‘The Black Adam: Paul Robeson in The Emperor Jones and The Proud Valley’
7.00pm Café West, Fulton House, Bar Opens
7.30pm Dinner, Refectory, Fulton House
8.30pm – 11pm Café West, Afro-Celtic Music with Rhiannon Giddens
Day 2: Thursday, 29th March 2007
7.30am – 9.00am Refectory, Fulton House
Breakfast
9.30am – 11.00pm Refectory, Fulton House
Parallel Sessions 1
Panel 1A. Literary Parallels and Exchanges
Room BO3 Chair: Keith Hughes, Edinburgh University
Justin Edwards ‘It is the Race Instinct’: Gothicism and the Return of the Repressed
justin.edwards@bangor.ac.uk
Linden Peach.
Faulkner’s Heirs: Emyr Humphreys and Toni Morrison
peachprfp@aol.com
Kieran Quinlan
The strange Case of Richard Wright and Other African-American- Irish Ancestries
KieranQuinlan@aol.com
Panel 1BJC Lecture Theatre, Musical Dialogues
Chair: Daniel Williams, Swansea University
Robert Nowatzki
Paul Robeson in Wales: A Working Class Black Atlantic
rnowatzki@bsu.eduMichael Cohen
Ballad People: music in the making of African American and Celtic Identities
mcc276@nyu.edu
April F. Masten
The Challenge Dance: Mid-Nineteenth Century Migrations of Afro-Celtic Popular Culture
amasten@notes.cc.sunysb.edu
Panel 1C Room BO4, African American and Irish Connections
Chair: Steve Vine, Swansea University
Mairead Byrne
Paternal Ancestors, Maternal Ghosts: Frederick Douglass in Ireland 1845-1846
mairead.byrne@gmail.comLauren Onkey
Irish Panthers? The Legacy of the Northern Irish Civil Rights Association
lonkey@bsu.edu
Jochen Achilles
Staging the Commodification of African American and Irish Identity
Jochen.achilles@mail.uni-wuerzburg.de
11am – 11.30am Impressions. Callahan Building
Coffee
11.30am – 12.30pm Keynote 2.
Glenn Jordan
‘St. Clair Drake: an African American Anthropologist in 1940s Butetown’
12.30pm – 1.30 pm Refectory, Fulton House
Lunch
1.45pm – 3.15pmParallel Sessions 2
Panel 2AClass, Nationalism, Feminism
JC Lecture Theatre
Chair: Charlotte Aull Davies, Swansea University
Kevin Smith
Education as Liberation: Imperialism and its Effects on Welsh and African American Education
kevin.smith@Locklandschools.org
Helen Mary Jones, AM
Welsh Nationalism, Feminism and the influence of Alice Walker
karen.Thomas@wales.gov.ukBranwen Okpako, Searching for Taid
Panel 2B Room BO3, Scotland and the Black Atlantic
Chair: Robert Lawson-Peebles, Exeter University
Keith Hughes
Burns, Douglass and Republican Aesthetics
khughes@uun.ed.ac.ukAlan Rice
Strangers at Home: Africans and African Americans in Scotland
arice@uclan.ac.ukAlasdair Pettinger
Frederick Douglass and Walter Scott
Alasdair@bulldozia.com
Panel 2C Room BO4, Afro-Celtic Hybridities
Chair: Linden Peach, Northumbria University
Wendy Hayes-Jones
Black Irishman’: Ishmael Reed and the game of Celtic Identity
wendy.hayes-jones@sihe.ac.ukAlyce Von Rothkirch
Greg Cullen’s ‘Paul Robeson Knew My Father’: Nationhood, Race and Masculinity
a.v.von.rothkirch@swansea.ac.ukMicheal Newton
‘Did you hear about the Gaelic-Speaking African?’: Gaidhlig Memorates about Race in North America
Panel 2D. (In Welsh with translation facilities). Caethwasanaeth, Diddymiaeth a Chymru
Slavery, Abolitionism and Wales
Room BO2 Cadair: Gareth Williams, Prifysgol Morgannwg / University of Glamorgan
Jerry Hunter
Heddychiaeth Gymreig a Diddymiaeth Filwriaethus: Robert Everett a’i feibion a galwad Henry Highland Garnett'
Welsh Pacifism and Militant Abolitionism: Robert Everett and his sons and Henry Highland Garnett's "Call to Rebellion".'
jerry@pioden.netBill Jones
Caethwas Ffoedig yng Nghaerdydd: Hanes William A. Hall a diddymiaeth Gymreig 1861-65A
Fugitive Slave in Cardiff: the narrative of William A. Hall and Welsh anti-slavery sentiments 1861-65
joneswd@Cardiff.ac.ukE. Wyn James
Morgan John Rhys a Chaethwasanaeth Americanaidd
Morgan John Rhys and American Slavery
jamesew@Cardiff.ac.uk
3.15pm – 3.45pm Coffee
3.45pm – 5.15pm JC Lecture Theatre ‘Lost Voices of the Afro-Celts’
Rhiannon Giddens and Micheal Newton
A multimedia presentation on the interaction between Scottish Gaels and African Americans, including contemporary illustrations and live performances of the music resulting from the fascinating exchanges between these two peoples.
This performance is made possible with the support of the Collegium for African American Research.
5.15 – 6.30. Free Time
6.30pm Bus Leaves from the Front of Fulton House to the Dylan Thomas Centre
7.00pm – 11.00pm Dylan Thomas Centre, Conference Entertainment Evening.
7pm - 8.15pm. Welsh Book of the Year.
Readings. Tristan Hughes and Daniel Williams.
Chair: Nigel Jenkins.
Sponsored by Academi.
8.15pm - 8.45pm. Hot Buffet Dinner
8.30 - 11.00 Music by leading African American guitarist Jean-Paul Bourelly joined by the jazz quintet 'Burum'.
The celebrated Dylan Thomas Exhibition will also be open for conference delegates.
11.00pm. Bus Leaves for Fulton House
Day 3: Friday, 30th March 2007
7.30am – 8.45am Refectory, Fulton House
Breakfast
9am- 9.30am Conference address by the Rt. Hon. Peter Hain, Secretary of State for Wales and Northern Ireland.
9.30am – 11.00am Parallel Sessions 3
Panel 3A Music and Identity
Chair: Columba Peoples, Swansea University
Robert Lawson-Peebles
From Bangor to Butlin’s: Harry Parry’s problematic traversal of the terrain of Jazz
R.Lawson-Peebels@exeter.ac.ukDave Jones
Jazz Interactions: African American and Welsh musicians in Butetown, from the 1960s onward
s.jones@waggoners-cottage.fsnet.co.ukErich Nunn
Imagined Irishness and the Invention of Country Music
erich@virginia.edu
Panel 3B Abolitionists Abroad
Chair: Alan Rice, University of Central Lancashire
David Wyatt
A Fugitive Slave in Cardiff: the narrative of William A. Hall and Welsh anti-slavery sentiments 1861-65
wyattd1@Cardiff.ac.ukJen Wilson
A Nobler Strife: Swansea Abolitionists and the Cincinnati Trail 1820-1907
womeninjazz@btconnect.comJ. R. Kerr-Ritchie
The Celtic World of an Ex-Slave: Samuel Ringgold Ward
jkerrritchie@juno.com
Panel 3C (in Welsh with translation facilities) Dylanwadau Affro-Americanaidd
African American Influences on Contemporary Welsh language literature
Cefnogir y panel yma gan ACADEMI
Chair: M Wynn. Thomas, Prifysgol Abertawe
Simon Brooks
"Caradog Wyn" Gwyn Thomas: Cymro Cymraeg "du gwyn" ym Mlaenau FfestiniogGareth Miles
Casáu Shakespeare o'r Sedd Fawr: Dylanwad James Baldwin
Hating Shakespeare from the Amen Corner: The Influence of James Baldwin
milltiroedd@computingwales.comHarri Pritchard-Jones
Harlem yn Gymraeg: Cyfieithu Ann Petry
Harlem in Welsh: Translating Ann Petry
h.pritchard-jones@ntlworld.com
11.00am – 11.30 am. Coffee
11.30am – 12.30pm Keynote 3
Werner Sollors ‘African Americans in Europe Between the Two World Wars’
12am – 1am Refectory, Fulton House, Lunch
1.30 – 2.30 JC Lecture Theatre America Gaeth a'r Cymru
The Welsh and American Slavery
Jerry Hunter, Bangor University, will discuss the making of his celebrated three part TV documentary series on the Welsh and American Slavery. Excerpts from the series will be shown with subtitles.
Bydd Jerry Hunter yn trafod ei gyfres deledu diweddar, America Gaeth a'r Cymru
2.30 – 3.00 Coffee
3.00 – 4.30 Menna Elfyn and Jackie Kay:Poetry Readings and discussion of African American Influences This session is supported by ACADEMI