Panelists from universities around the country traveled to Evanston to join Northwestern professors for a two-day conference that will continue through Friday on diaspora populations.
Sponsored by NU’s Institute of Diaspora Studies, “Diaspora and the Comparative Imagination” is the first of a series of workshops scheduled for the next two years. About 30 students and professors attended the first half of the conference in Norris University Center’s Louis Room North on Thursday afternoon, with the final two panels scheduled for Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“It’s an extremely important event,” Richard Joseph, director of the Program of African Studies, told The Daily. “Large numbers of Africans who left the continent in the past two decades manage very strong links with their home countries.”
Joseph called the dynamic of diasporas “fascinating to the comparative dimension” and said the conference was unique in “bringing together the experiences of different diaspora communities.”
Three speakers presented during Thursday’s panel: Wesleyan University’s Jonathan Boyarin discussed the Jewish diaspora; NU Prof. David Schoenbrun read a presentation on the African diaspora by a Harvard University professor who was unable to attend; and Kamal Sadiq from the University of California at Irvine discussed the conflict over illegal immigration. Panelists sought to define the concept of diaspora as well as to offer insight on how various worldwide groups acquire different perspectives.
“Is it correct to speak of the Jewish diaspora or Jewish diasporas?” Boyarin asked during his presentation. He then discussed the nature of this cohesive, yet decentralized group.
Weinberg junior Caley Walsh said she was required to attend the conference for her diaspora theory course. She only stayed to listen to Boyarin’s presentation.
“He’s definitely more concerned with questioning the questions being asked about diaspora instead of approaching the questions,” Walsh said. “I would have liked to hear more about the South Asian diaspora because it’s more pertinent to our course.”
In a presentation on illegal immigration, Sadiq discussed political transnationalism, illegal voting and fraudulent paperwork among non-citizens.
“Birth certificates are absent in the majority of developing countries,” he said, adding that the majority of Indians with passports live abroad. “So how do you define an Indian?”
Rupal Vora, the program’s workshop assistant, stressed the need for a greater understanding of diaspora.
“It’s an issue that people are not very familiar with even though it’s so historically imperative and culturally important,” said Vora, a Weinberg junior. “That’s the whole point of having a panel discussion — so there’s a back-and-forth, an interaction, a dialogue started.”
Reach Andrea Chang at [email protected].
