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Navigating Afro-Knowledges – Exploring Practices and Theories in Digital Diaspora Studies
From June 17 to 19, 2026, the AFROEUROPECYBERSPACE team will organize a three-day international conference on “Navigating Afro-Knowledges Exploring Practices and Theories in Digital Diaspora Studies” at the Forum am Domshof at the University of Bremen. This conference invites participants to explore, challenge and reframe the theoretical and methodological tools currently used in the study of digital diasporas. It foregrounds the lived practices, creative expressions, and activist interventions that emerge from Afrodiasporic cyberspaces, positioning them not at the margins, but at the centre of digital cultural production and critique, with particular focus on Romance-speaking countries.
For more detailed information please read our Call for Papers. The detailed program can be found here:
Conference Program. Admission is free.
The conference features several special sessions and cultural highlights. Please follow the links for more details:
- Keynotes: Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University): (Post-)Digital Diasporic Forecasts and Futures & Mayra Santos-Febres (Universidad de Puerto Rico, Recinto Río Piedras): Fractal Afro-Poetics: Afrodiasporic Writing Practices in the AfroEuroCyberspace Find out more
- Poetry Reading & Conversation with Raquel Lima and Kiyémis (17 June, 6 pm at Schwankhalle). Find out more
- Afrodescendant Artivism Across Europe: A Roundtable with Tania Adam, Raquel Lima, Kiyémis, Wendy Baonga, and Charline Kanza (18 June, 3 pm at Forum am Domshof). Find out more
Copyright: Marbella Figueroa
Poetry Reading and Conversation with Raquel Lima and Kiyémis
·3 mins
17 June 2026, 6pm, Schwankhalle (Buntentorsteinweg 112/116)
Afrodescendant Artivism Across Europe: A Roundtable with Tania Adam, Raquel Lima, Kiyémis, Wendy Baonga, and Charline Kanza
·4 mins
A more detailed description will follow shortly.
·4 mins
| Day 1 – 17 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 30036 | |
|---|---|
| 9:00-9:30 | Registration |
| 9:30-10:00 | INAUGURATION Welcome address by U Bremen’s Vice President for International Affairs, Academic Qualification, and Diversity Opening remarks by the organizers |
| 10:00-11:00 | Keynote 1 (also via Zoom) Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University) (POST-)DIGITAL DIASPORIC FORECASTS AND FUTURESModeration: Julia Borst |
| 11:00-11:30 | Coffee Break |
| 11:30-13:30 |
PANEL 1 – MULTIMODAL PRACTICES AND THE CIRCULATION OF DECOLONIAL KNOWLEDGE ACROSS AFRO-DIASPORIC DIGITAL CONTEXTS
Alessandra Truchetti (U Milan-Bicocca) Navigating Afro-Amazigh Subjectivities: Art, Race and Digital Practices among Youth of North African Origin in Italy: A TransMediterrAtlantic Perspective on Diasporic Belonging and Resistance Valeria Angola (Writer and Activist on Afrochingonas) Afrochingonas: Digital Activism as a Field of Narrative Dispute Fiona Quast (JLU Giessen) Decolonial Knowledge Production in Black Podcasting across Abya Yala Gisela Febel (U Bremen) Avoir raison avec… bell hooks. An Example of Theory and Knowledge Transfer across Borders and Ages via Podcasts |
| 13:30-15:00 | Lunch Break (University Canteen)* |
| 15:00-17:00 |
PANEL 2 – DIGITAL PLATFORMS AND AFRODIASPORIC TRANSCONTINENTAL SELF-REPRESENTATION
Carmen Diop (Paris 8) cases-rebelles.org and uneautrehistoire.org: Two Ways of Navigating Afro-descendant Knowledge Kwanza Musi Dos Santos (Antiracist trainer and activist) Between Platforms and Places: Afro-Italian Digital Activism in the post-BLM Moment Oluwatoyin Mbachu (Kings College London) Transatlantic Discourse Links Between the Lagosian Aguda and the Black Atlantic Reimagined in the 21st Century Camille Dasseleer (KU Leuven) Towards a Digital Autonomy for the Underrepresented: Digital Platforms and Afrodiasporic Arts in Latin America |
| 19:00-20:30 | Cultural Programm in Schwankhalle POETRY READING AND CONVERSATION WITH RAQUEL LIMA AND KIYÉMIS Moderation: Francesca Aiuti |
| 20:30 | Dinner* |
| Day 2 – 18 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 20044 / Kassenhalle | |
| 9:30-10:30 | Keynote 2 (also via Zoom) Mayra Santos-Febres (University of Puerto Rico) Fractal Afro-poetics: Afrodiasporic Writing Practices in the AfroeuropeCyberspaceModeration: Nelson Sindze Wembe |
| 10:30-11:00 | Coffee Break |
| 11:00-13:00 |
PANEL 3 – DIGITAL MEDIA SPACES AS SITES OF EXPANSION OF AFROKNOWLEDGES
Ann Mabel Sanyu (Anti-discrimination trainer / Ruhr-U Bochum) Navigating Afro-Diasporic Digital Spaces: Afro-Knowledges, Music, and Representation among Ghanaian Women in Hamburg and London Jasmin Wrobel (Ruhr-U Bochum) From Households to Hashtags: Domestic Work in Brazilian Instagram Comics Omar Ezzaoua (Hassan II U) Comedy as Digital and Performative Resistance by Afro-Diasporic Artists in France Josephine Delali Ofei (U Brussel) Navigating Digital Heroism: Afro-Knowledges and Aesthetic Ecologies in Kenyan Afrofuturist Mediascapes |
| 13:00-14:30 | Lunch Break (University Canteen)* |
| 14:30-16:30 | AFRODESCENDANT ARTIVISM ACROSS EUROPE: A ROUNDTABLE WITH TANIA ADAM, RAQUEL LIMA, KIYÉMIS, WENDY BAONGA, AND CHARLINE KANZA (also via Zoom) Moderation: Ximena Cervantes Englerth, Merveilles Mouloungui |
| 16:30-17:00 | Coffee Break |
| 17:00-19:00 |
PANEL 4 – MAPPING BELONGING AND DIASPORIC SOLIDARITIES THROUGH DIGITAL PRACTICES: BLACK FEMINIST AND INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVES (also via Zoom)
Asha Salim (U Philadelphia) Mapping the Unmapped: Southern Afro-Digital Geographies and the Affective Politics of Language Thembeka Heidi Sincuba (Durban U of Technology / Glitching the Future) Between Screen and Soil: Afro-Feminist Speculations on Digital Being Zynthia Álvarez Palomino (Founder of ‘Mujeres negras que cambiaron el mundo’) Black Women Who Changed the World: A Counter-Narrative Born in the Digital World Julia Vilhena (U Coimbra) Women’s Voices across Afrodiasporic Digital Networks: Interlacing Lusophone Diasporas and Belonging (online) |
| 20:00-22:00 | Dinner* |
| Day 3 – 19 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 30036 | |
| 9:30-11:30 |
PANEL 5 – AFROKNOWLEDGES IN/ABOUT/THROUGH THE BODY IN THE DIGITAL WORLD (also via Zoom)
Herlandson Duarte (Nova Institute of Communication ICNOVA) If Your Body Is Here, Maybe I'm Inside Your Body – Digital Technology and Colonial Technology Enigmas Danae Gallo González (JLU Giessen) Navigating through Afro-Haircare ‘Sentipensamientos’ in Latinamerican YouTube Vlogs Eva Bohler (California State University) Big Brother Is Always Watching: Surveillance, Anti-Blackness, and the Afrodiasporic Family Grace Fainelli (Author, Communicator & Founder of Narrazioni Contaminate) THE BLACK BODY ONLINE: Visibility, Presence and Reappropriation in the Italian Digital Landscape (online) |
| 11:30-12:00 | Coffee break |
| 12:00-13:30 |
PANEL 6 – DIGITAL ARCHIVES ABOUT THE HISTORIES AND MEMORIES OF AFRO COMMUNITIES (also via Zoom)
Alison Posey (U Transylvania / U Bremen) Afromayores and Materia Reservada: Digital Reckonings with Spain’s Colonial Past Sandra Creighton (writer & creative producer) & John Bessai (independent scholar & media producer) Navigating Afro-Knowledges in The Ward: A Playable Radical History for Afro-Canadian Counter-Memory Mamatime Radingwana (U South Africa) Exploring the Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) in the 21st century through the Sepedi Practice of Mat Making (online) |
| 13:30-15:00 | Lunch Break* (Markthalle) |
| 15:00-16:30 |
PANEL 7 – HUMOR, MEMORY AND RADICAL SELF-REPRESENTATION IN THE AFRODIASPORIC DIGITAL SPACE (also via Zoom)
Nelson Sindze Wembe (U Bremen) Castigat Ridendo Potestatem: Web Micro-Series as Sites of Political Dissidence in the Afrodiasporic Digital Space Benachour Saidi (TU Chemnitz) Afrocentrism and Digital Normativity: Multi-Sited, Multi-Versal and Global-Centric Views Alexia Désirée Epanja Badolet (U Lille) Discourse Analysis of the Historical Reconstruction of Central Africa Through Cyberactivism in the Work of Nathalie Yamb, Francklin Nyamsi, Jonas Moulenda, and Kemi Seba |
| 16:30-17:00 | Organizers CLOSING REMARKS |
| 19:00 | Dinner* & Dancing |
Keynotes
·3 mins
The keynote speeches will be streamed via video conference. To participate, please send an email to: afroeuropecyberspace@uni-bremen.de