Grand Challenges: Africa Through Language and Area Studies (ATLAS)
Grant Type: Team Project Grant
Topics: Racial and Social Justice, Education
Colleges Represented: ARHU, BSOS
October 7, 2024
ATLAS Monthly Speaker Series:
Global Research Resilience: Navigating Social Unrest - Insights from Africa, 11am - 12pm
A panel of risk and security experts from the U.S. Department of State and faculty from UMD share perspectives, experiences, and recommendations for navigating challenges and opportunities inherent in conducting academic research and field work in international environments, particularly within the context of Africa.
Register here
November 14, 2024
ATLAS Monthly Speaker Series:
Language, Power, and Identity: Black Languages as Tools of Liberation and Expression, 11am-12pm
This panel explores the dynamic relationship between language, power, and identity within Black diasporic communities, focusing on Black languages as powerful tools of liberation and cultural expression.
Register here
February 27-28, 2025
ATLAS Annual Conference
University of Maryland, College Park Campus
ATLAS invites proposals for panel presentations, roundtable sessions, and a poster session. The proposal submission deadline is December 15, 2024. Accept/decline notifications will be sent December 20. Learn more here.
The Africa Through Language and Area Studies (ATLAS) serves as a nexus for the study of African languages, history, contemporary issues, and research at the University of Maryland with the goal of increasing the understanding of the African continent and its growing global influence. Through a website that acts as a virtual hub, ATLAS seeks to centralize all courses, events, and student groups that focus on Africa and the African diaspora, as well as showcase relevant research and scholarship throughout campus. The website is intended to be a platform where the campus community can come together to find and share information encompassing all UMD activities related to African studies.
ATLAS also hosts a monthly speaker series and an annual conference on the study of Africa and its diaspora, bringing together interested faculty, staff, and students and attracting African thought leaders and scholars to engage with the UMD community. By celebrating the diversity and contributions of the many UMD faculty and students working on topics related to Africa, ATLAS seeks to reduce disparities in representation, increase the prominence of African and African American topics of study, encourage more scholarship on Africa, and foster community across different departments and fields of study.
Team Members:
PI: Miranda Abadir (ARHU), Second Language Acquisition, National Foreign Language Center |
Matthew Thomann (BSOS), Assistant Professor, Anthropology |
Connie DiJohnson (ARHU), Second Language Acquisition (SLA), National Foreign Language Center |