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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) Find out more
  • Poetry Reading & Conversation with Raquel Lima and Kiyémis (17 June, 7 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

Copyright: Marbella Figueroa



CONFERENCE PROGRAM

Day 1 – 17 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 30036
9:00-9:30Registration
9:30-10:00Organizers
INAUGURATION
10:00-11:00Keynote 1
Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University)
(POST-)DIGITAL DIASPORIC FORECASTS AND FUTURES
Moderation: Julia Borst
11:00-11:30Coffee 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
13:30-15:00Lunch 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
18:00-20:30Cultural Programm in Schwankhalle
POETRY READING AND CONVERSATION WITH RAQUEL LIMA AND KIYÉMIS
Moderation: Francesca Aiuti
20:30Dinner*
Day 2 – 18 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 20044 / Kassenhalle
9:30-10:30Keynote 2
N.N.
Moderation: Nelson Sindze Wembe
10:30-11:00Coffee Break
11:00-13:30 PANEL 3 – DIGITAL MEDIA SPACES AS SITES OF EXPANSION OF AFROKNOWLEDGES Francesca Aiuti, Julia Borst, Ximena Cervantes Englerth, Merveilles Mouloungui & Nelson Sindze Wembe (U Bremen)Theoretical and Methodological Reflections on the Analysis of Afrodiasporic Digital Platforms 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
13:30-15:00Lunch Break (University Canteen)*
15:00-17:00AFRODESCENDANT ARTIVISM ACROSS EUROPE: A ROUNDTABLE WITH TANIA ADAM, RAQUEL LIMA, KIYÉMIS, WENDY BAONGA, AND CHARLINE KANZA
Moderation: Ximena Cervantes Englerth, Merveilles Mouloungui
17:00-17:30Coffee Break
17:30-19:30 PANEL 4 – MAPPING BELONGING AND DIASPORIC SOLIDARITIES THROUGH DIGITAL PRACTICES: BLACK FEMINIST AND INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVES 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)

·4 mins
Day 1 – 17 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 30036
9:00-9:30Registration
9:30-10:00Organizers
INAUGURATION
10:00-11:00Keynote 1
Francesca Sobande (Cardiff University)
(POST-)DIGITAL DIASPORIC FORECASTS AND FUTURESModeration: Julia Borst
11:00-11:30Coffee 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
13:30-15:00Lunch 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
19:00-20:30Cultural Programm in Schwankhalle
POETRY READING AND CONVERSATION WITH RAQUEL LIMA AND KIYÉMIS
Moderation: Francesca Aiuti
20:30Dinner*
Day 2 – 18 June 2026 – Forum am Domshof, Room 20044 / Kassenhalle
9:30-10:30Keynote 2
Mayra Santos-Febres (University of Puerto Rico)
N.N.Moderation: Nelson Sindze Wembe
10:30-11:00Coffee Break
11:00-13:30 PANEL 3 – DIGITAL MEDIA SPACES AS SITES OF EXPANSION OF AFROKNOWLEDGES Francesca Aiuti, Julia Borst, Ximena Cervantes Englerth, Merveilles Mouloungui & Nelson Sindze Wembe (U Bremen)
Theoretical and Methodological Reflections on the Analysis of Afrodiasporic Digital Platforms
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
13:30-15:00Lunch Break (University Canteen)*
15:00-17:00AFRODESCENDANT ARTIVISM ACROSS EUROPE: A ROUNDTABLE WITH TANIA ADAM, RAQUEL LIMA, KIYÉMIS, WENDY BAONGA, AND CHARLINE KANZA
Moderation: Ximena Cervantes Englerth, Merveilles Mouloungui
17:00-17:30Coffee Break
17:30-19:30 PANEL 4 – MAPPING BELONGING AND DIASPORIC SOLIDARITIES THROUGH DIGITAL PRACTICES: BLACK FEMINIST AND INTERSECTIONAL PERSPECTIVES 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
20:00-22:00Dinner*
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 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)
11:30-12:00Coffee break
12:00-13:30 PANEL 6 – DIGITAL ARCHIVES ABOUT THE HISTORIES AND MEMORIES OF AFRO COMMUNITIES 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
13:30-15:00Lunch Break* (Markthalle)
15:00-17:00 PANEL 7 – HUMOR, MEMORY AND RADICAL SELF-REPRESENTATION IN THE AFRODIASPORIC DIGITAL SPACE 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
Apolo De Carvahlo (U Coimbra)
Batuku sta no moda? ‘Digital Terreiros’ and the Radical Imagin-Action of the Bandeirinhas Panafrikanistas
17:00-17:30Organizers
CLOSING REMARKS
19:00Dinner* & Dancing

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