News & Events

Friday, October 30, 2009
by: Dr. Simone A. James Alexander

The Department of Africana Studies continues its Africana Lecturer Series by hosting its first guest of the fall 2009 semester, renowned author and professor emerita of Columbia University, Maryse Condé.  Dr. Condé’s lecture is titled “Itinerary of a Caribbean Writer.” The event will take place on November 18, 2009 at 6 - 8:30 p.m. in the Faculty Lounge, Bishop Dougherty University Center.

Author, professor, critic, playwright Maryse Condé’s continuous preoccupation with tropes of exile, migration, European imperialism, identity, African ancestry, notions of home and homelessness, corruption and disillusionment qualifies her as one of the leading and influential voices of the African diaspora.  Author of more than 18 novels, Condé has garnered numerous accolades for her invaluable contribution to the arts and humanities that include the Prix Yourcenar 1999 for excellence in French writing, the Prix de L’Academie Française (1988). 

Condé  is the winner of France’s Prestigious Grand Prix Litéraire de la Femme; she was awarded the Prix Liberatur (Germany 1988) for her historical novel Segu (1987).  Condé held several teaching appointments, namely in Conakry, Guinea, in Accra, Ghana and St. Louis, Senegal.  Her professorial/teaching achievement includes a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1987-88) and a Bellagio Writer-in-Residence, Rockefeller Foundation (1987).  She also worked as a program producer for the BBC in London and worked in the capacity of course director at the Sorbonne.  In 1999 New York University awarded her the lifetime Achievement Award. 

Partial funding for this Distinguished Guest Lecturer Series event has been provided by the College of Arts and Sciences thanks to the generous support of the President’s Advisory Council members.

For more information please contact:
Dr. Simone A. James Alexander, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of Africana Studies
(973) 275-5881
alexansi@shu.edu