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In Person & Virtual: Fighting for Archives: Endangered Archives and Preserving the History of the Afro-Colombian Martial Arts
February 5 @ 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EST
Free
Join the American Trust for the British Library at Baruch College for “Fighting for Archives: Endangered Archives and Preserving the History of the Afro-Colombian Martial Arts,” a talk with historian Dr. T.J. Desch-Obi on his Endangered Archives Programme grant project. Prior to the talk, his project colleague Rosángela Valencia Valderrama, will provide a project overview. The featured talk will be followed by a moderated discussion, Q&A session, and reception afterward.
Dr. T.J. Desch-Obi is an ethnographer and permanent member of the history department at the City University of New York’s Baruch College, where he also teaches in the Black and Latino Studies, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Religion departments. He received his doctorate from the University of California Los Angeles and is the author of Fighting for Honor: The History of African Martial Art Traditions in the Atlantic World. He specializes in the historical ethnography of pre-colonial Africa and the African Diaspora with a focus upon martial arts, physical culture, religion, sport, historical linguistics, and military history. His current manuscript, With the Flat of a Machete: Spirituality, Gender, and History of Afro-Colombian Martial Arts, 1847-1947, traces the history of the Afro-Colombian martial arts of grima.
Rosángela Valencia Valderrama has a master’s degree in history from the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar in Quito, Ecuador, and an archival studies degree from Universidad del Valle in Cali Colombia. Her specialties include local history, colonial Caloto, and the recuperation and organization of archives. She serves as an adjunct professor in the Department of History of the Universidad del Valle. She has recently organized the Archivo historico del Ingenio Manuelita (an historic sugar plantation in Palmira, Valle del Cauca) and Familia Eder de Zambrano. She is the author of many articles and is finishing a manuscript entitled Noticias historiales de Caloto: Pueblos indios, pueblos colonizadores, pueblos negros (Historic News of Caloto: Indian towns, Colonizing towns, Black towns).
Co-sponsored by the Department of History at Baruch College, City University of New York; and by the American Trust for the British Library.
This is a free program, open to the public. It will also be livestreamed.
Watch a video about the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme, or learn more here.