Program

Register for the USS Conference

 

Program

The program is subject to change. Please sign up for updates.

All conference activities will be hosted at the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront Hotel  with the exception of the October 18th Open House and October 21st Brunch at the Black Cultural Centre. Delegates pre-registered for excursions will be provided return transportation.

Hotel Room Rate expires September 18th or sooner if the block is full. Book your room today at our very competitive rate.

 


 

Wednesday, October 18th

Open House at the Black Cultural Centre & Tour of Africville
9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Bus departs hotel at 9 a.m. and returns to hotel at approximately 2 p.m.

Must pre-register for this excursion and is limited to registered delegates only. Includes return transportation. Seats are limited.

 



Thursday, October 19th

Presidents Opening Breakfast
8 a.m. – 10 a.m.

H.E. John Mahama, former President of Ghana

 


 

Morning Breakouts/Plenary Sessions
10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

 

Concurrent Panel #1: Reparations and Politics

Cikiah Thomas, Global African Congress, Canada

Delvina Bernard, Saint Mary’s University, Canada

Michael Heslop, Northern Virginia Community College, United States

 

Concurrent Panel #2: Universities and Slavery

Meredith A. Love- Steinmetz, Francis Marion University, United States

Summer Perritt, PhD Candidate, Rice University, United States

Monica Kristin Blair, Johns Hopkins University, United States

Elizabeth Beckman, Johns Hopkins University, United States

 


 

Luncheon Keynote Address
12 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Dr. Sylvia D. Hamilton, renowned filmmaker, writer, journalist and artist, and University of King’s College Inglis Professor

 


 

Afternoon Breakouts/Plenary Sessions
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

 

Concurrent Panel #1: A Pan-African Intervention in Undertaking Reparations

Carlos Alvarez, Articulación Latinoamericana para el Decenio Afrodescendiente, Argentina

Marvin Slaughter, University of Chicago, United States

Shari Garcia, International Coalition for People of African Descent, Colombia

Kwesi Ochosi, Global African Congress, United Kingdom

 

Concurrent Panel #2: Institutions and Communities

Politics in the Archives of Slavery and Abolition, Mary T. Freeman, University of Maine, United States

Outcomes and Observations from the Columbia University & Slavery Project, Thai Jones, Columbia University, United States

Race, Tax, and the Funding of Universities in Loyalist Nova Scotia, Shirley Tillotson, University of King’s College and Dalhousie University, Canada

Rethinking the Shelburne Riots: Exploring Community Perspectives, Graham Nickerson, PhD candidate, University of New Brunswick, Canada

 

Concurrent Panel #3: Migration, Governance and Slavery’s Afterlife in Canada

Funke Aladejebi, University of Toronto, Canada

Michele Johnson, York University, Canada

Barrington Walker, McMaster University, Canada

 


 

Evening Reception and Dinner
5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Reception
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Dinner

Keynote speaker: Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission

 



Friday, October 20th

Breakfast Keynote Address
8 a.m. – 10 a.m.

Dr. Afua Cooper, distinguished historian and poet, and Killam Research Chair in Black and African Diaspora Studies at Dalhousie University

 


 

Morning Breakouts/Plenary Sessions
10:30 a.m. – 12 p.m.

 

Concurrent Panel #1: Nova Scotia and Slavery

A New Freedom in Christ: Black Christian Abolitionists in Loyalist Nova Scotia, Alphonso F. Saville, Princeton University, United States

Freedom, Foodways, & Fugitive Ecologies: Subsistence as Resistance, from Halifax, North Carolina to Halifax Nova Scotia, Tony N. VanWinkle, Guilford College, United States

Held in Slavery, Indentured or Free? Recovering the Black Voices in John Clarkson’s Halifax Notebook, Eleanor Bird, Lancaster University, United Kingdom

 

Concurrent Panel #2: Cuba and the Legacy of Slavery 

Dra. Miriam Nicado García, Vice-Rector, University of Havana, Cuba

Kenia Serrano, Dean of Preparatory Studies, University of Havana, Cuba

 

Roundtable: Examining Black Loyalist Historiography and Proposing New Directions in Black Loyalist History

Dr. Ibrahim Abdullah, University of Sierra Leone, Sierra Leone

Graham Nickerson, University of New Brunswick, Canada

Dr. Afua Cooper, Dalhousie University, Canada

Andrea Davis, Black Loyalist Heritage Centre & Museum, Nova Scotia, Canada

 


 

Luncheon Keynote Address
12 p.m. – 2 p.m.

Dr. Harvey Amani Whitfield, leading historian of Black history and slavery in Colonial Canada and a Professor in Black North American History at the University of Calgary

 


 

Afternoon Breakouts/Plenary Sessions
2:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

 

Concurrent Panel #1: Loyalists and Enslavement at King’s College, Nova Scotia

Bonnie Huskins, Assistant Professor, University of New Brunswick, Canada

David W. States, Parks Canada historian and independent genealogist, Canada

Karolyn Smardz Frost, Adjunct Professor at Acadia University and Harriet Tubman Institute, York University, Canada

 

Concurrent Panel #2: Together We Can: Intersectional Collaboration among Faculty, Staff, Students, and the Broader Community

Meredith Love, Francis Marion University, United States

Erica Johnson Edwards, Francis Marion University, United States

Linda Sullen, Francis Marion University, United States

 

Concurrent Panel #3: Legacy: Dead and Living Hand

Valerie Borum, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada

Sujaya Dhanvantari, McGill University, Canada

Tejash Kumar Singh, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

 


 

Evening Reception and Dinner
5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Reception
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Dinner

Keynote speaker: Dr. George Elliott Clarke, renowned poet and E.J. Pratt Professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto

 



Saturday, October 21st

Brunch — Black Cultural Centre, Dartmouth, NS
9 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Bus departs hotel at 9 a.m.

Keynote speaker: H.E. David Comissiong, Barbadian lawyer, former senator and founder of the Clement Payne Movement

Viewing of the film: I am the Bridge by Bernard Cook | Melisande Short-Colomb

Bus returns to hotel at approximately 2 p.m.

Must pre-register for this excursion and is limited to registered delegates only. Includes return transportation. Seats are limited.