Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Co-sponsored by the Center for Canadian-American Studies, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the department of History, and in partnership with the WWU Alumni Association
Through an intimate exploration of the roots of Black identities in North America and the routes taken by those who have crisscrossed the world’s longest undefended border in search of freedom and belonging, this lecture journeys back and forth across the Canada/US border, and from coast to coast, combining memoir and analysis to highlight the tensions, contradictions, translations, and complications that anchor our understandings of race. Across time and space, this research asks: where is home for those of African descent, and is belonging within the confines of the nation-state either possible or desirable?
Co-sponsored by the Center for Canadian-American Studies, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the department of History, and in partnership with the WWU Alumni Association
Through an intimate exploration of the roots of Black identities in North America and the routes taken by those who have crisscrossed the world’s longest undefended border in search of freedom and belonging, this lecture journeys back and forth across the Canada/US border, and from coast to coast, combining memoir and analysis to highlight the tensions, contradictions, translations, and complications that anchor our understandings of race. Across time and space, this research asks: where is home for those of African descent, and is belonging within the confines of the nation-state either possible or desirable?
