states of circulation: ethnographic reflections from southwest asia and north africa, university of toronto [nov 1 & 2, 2024]
participant
- I was invited to this workshop with colleagues in anthropology, geography, and political science to discuss works that revolved around michel foucault's thesis in security, territory, and population: lectures at the collège de france, 1977–1978 (2004). I presented my paper "the history of the future: grammars of racialized power in 19th and 20th century sudan." In this paper, I compare two works written in sudan which reflect the reconstruction of the late ottoman empire's networks of power, authority, and rule in the arabic-speaking world.
seeing the world through sudan: critical frameworks for understanding the crises and implications of sudan’s counterrevolutionary war, brown university [oct 11 & 12, 2024]
co-organizer & moderator
- I co-organized this two-day conference (link) on the histories of violence shaping the ongoing war (and the genocides that it has perpetuated) in sudan. centering the voice and vantage points of sudanese scholars, activists, and artists, this conference collaboratively identified the necessary steps already taken and critically developed the ones yet needed to build towards a sudan that can avow the vexed inheritances of the past, atone the failures of its post/colonial present, and forge the path toward a more revolutionary future. I organized and curated the six panels that made up the conference (link to schedule): “introductions,” “land,” “revolution and counter-revolution,” “solidarity and its discontents,” “the preservation of collective memory,” and “the archival politics and infrastructures of sudanese music.” I also created an accompanying reading list (link) for each of the panels.
“slavery, abolition, and resistance: sudan, the mahdiyya movement, and 19th century ottoman-european relations,” university of oxford [oct 21, 2023]
keynote speaker
- the oxford university africa society invited me to launch this exhibition and showcase on identity, belonging, and social history in sudan. I presented on the long history of slavery in sudan, which I argued offers a lens by which to trace the formation of social worlds of resistance amongst enslaved groups and their descendants in nineteenth-century sudan.
“race and ethnicity in africa and europe,” akademie für politische bildung [sept 30 to oct 1, 2022]
presenter
- I presented my paper “racialized modernities of tarīkh al-sūdān.” in this piece, I read na’um shuqayr’s the history and geography of sudan (1903) through the lens of stuart hall’s engagement with the gramscian notion of historical conjuncture and through a reading of the intellectual history of (racial) progress in texts written in the arabic-speaking world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
“fair and lovely: a conversation on colorism,” new york university abu dhabi [nov 17, 2021]
panelist
- I was invited to join a panel on the history of colorism in the americas, south and southeast asia, and africa. the discussion, led by rogaia abusharaf and paneled by myself, ginetta e.b. candelario, joanne rondilla, and rani varghese, focused on the colonial history of colonialism and its continued socio-cultural impact across the global south. I presented on the case of sudan, and on the relationship between whiteness and genealogy, physiognomy, and its relationship to being “free” in the nineteenth century.
“racial formation in arab societies, arabs for black lives, and ramadan anti-racism,” muslimARC [april 3, 2021]
co-panelist
- muslimARC invited me to present on my research on racial capitalism in the afro-arab world, the systemic afterlives of slavery as they manifest in the region, and the historical implications of race-making in the arabic-speaking world. I was joined by margari hill and maytha alhassen.
“imagining the black arabs of tarīkh al-sūdān,” middle east studies association conference 2021 [dec 1 & 2, 2021] & african studies association conference 2021 [nov 19 & 21, 2021]
presenter
- as part of an attempt to bridge the gap between middle eastern and african studies, my colleagues and I organized a two-conference panel on the transnational and transcontinental history of the ottoman african world as it related to knowledge production, slavery, trade, and urban transformation. I presented my paper “imagining the black arabs of tarīkh al-sūdān,” which examined the intellectual history of race-making in post-ottoman, early 20th-century sudan. at MESA, our panel was chaired by eve troutt powell and our discussant was amal ghazal. at the ASA, our panel was chaired by eve troutt powell and our discussant was matthew hopper.
“racial formations in the middle east and africa,” the project on middle east political science [feb 25 & 26, 2021]
presenter
- I was invited to present my paper “the contradictions of afro-arab solidarity(ies).” this essay interrogates how the displacement of nubian communities during the construction of the aswan high dam complicates current historiographical conceptions of the global struggle for liberation and decolonization in the post-bandung world.
“reading black marxism: a discussion with robin d.g. kelley,” yale center for the study of race, indigeneity, and transnational migration [jan 19, 2021]
facilitator & co-organizer
- I received funding to co-organize and facilitate a conversation with robin d.g. kelley, distinguished professor and gary b. nash endowed chair in u.s. history at ucla, and fifteen of my colleagues from various universities that centered around black marxism: the making of a black radical tradition and cedric robinson’s lasting imprint on black studies and the study of history.
“theorizing africa as an emerging african scholar,” yale macmillan center [oct 23, 2020]
panelist
- I was invited to discuss my approach to african studies as an african scholar and address how my positionality informs the nature of my work. my portion of the conversation touched on the urgency to dismantle the layered, violent nature of knowledge production in the academy that excludes non-western ways of engaging with and knowing the world.
“off the shelf: a symposium to rediscover yale’s uncatalogued ottoman manuscripts,” beinecke rare book & manuscript library [dec 11, 2019]
presenter
- I presented on kitāb-ı ‘ilm-i hāl (a manual on living a spiritual muslim life), a manuscript written in ottoman turkish and produced in the 19th century. this presentation was part of the library’s cataloguing of over 500 ottoman turkish manuscripts that had been in the beinecke’s possession since the early 1900s.
“keep eyes on sudan,” cuny school of law [nov 14, 2019]
panelist
- I was invited to be a panelist at an event focusing on the ongoing sudanese revolution and its historical and political implications by the international refugee assistance project at cuny school of law. I contributed alongside isma’il kushkush, former bureau chief in east africa for the new york times, and nisrin elamin, professor of anthropology at the university of toronto.
“deconstructing the current political crisis in sudan,” new york university [april 25, 2019]
moderator & organizer
- I worked with nyu’s un initiative to organize a panel with isma’il kushkush, former bureau chief in east africa for the new york times; khalid albaih, political cartoonist and activist; susan stigant, director of africa programs at the united states institute of peace; nisrin elamin, professor of anthropology at the university of toronto; and marine alneel, sudanese activist. the panel deconstructed and historicized the sudanese revolution and explored sustainable political and economic goals for the country.