Join ASA at the 68th Annual Meeting held November 20-22, 2025 in Atlanta, GA and attend this year’s ASA Keynotes featuring distinguished lectures, the Sembène-Kelani Film Prize screening, special performances, and a DJ and dance party. Keynotes are open to all Annual Meeting attendees.
Thursday, November 20, 2025
Sembène-Kelani Film Prize Winner Screening and Q&A with the Director
Time: 12:00-3:15 PM
Location: M105 (Marquis Level)
The Fisherman directed by Zoey Martinson. Followed by Q&A session with the director.
Q&A Session: III-O-17 The Sembène-Kelani Film Prize: What We Saw
The Fisherman, directed by Zoey Martinson (Ghana, 2024) is a magical realist comedy that follows aging fisherman Atta Otto Sackey as he navigates a rapidly changing world shaped by climate change and economic shifts. As his coastal community faces pressure from illegal global fisheries, he joins forces with Adwoa Akoto, a young woman challenging gender discrimination in the industry, and two misfit youths seeking opportunity. Their journey to Accra sparks lively debates on gender, religion, technology, and business in contemporary Ghana. A humorous bond with a talking fish and appearances by Ghanaian social media personalities deepen the film’s reflection on cultural transformation.
Presidential Lecture: Elizabeth Schmidt, “Lessons from the Archives: The Case of Southern Rhodesia”
Time: 6:00-7:00 PM
Location: Marquis Ballroom AB
Each year, the President of the African Studies Association gives a lecture for Annual Meeting attendees.
Elizabeth Schmidt is professor emeritus of history at Loyola University Maryland and president of the African Studies Association. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A scholar-activist, she has written six books about Africa, covering US involvement in apartheid South Africa, women under colonialism in Zimbabwe, the nationalist movement in Guinea, and foreign intervention in Africa from the Cold War to the war on terror. Her current book project focuses on US and UK support for the white minority regime in Southern Rhodesia in the context of decolonization and the Cold War. Based on recently declassified documents in the US National Archives, it makes a plea for public historians to introduce the population at large to the lessons of history.
Opening Reception
Time: 7:00-9:00 PM
Location: Marquis Foyer
Open to all meeting attendees, this event organized in partnership with the Local Arrangements Committee welcomes attendees to the ASA Annual Meeting. Guests enjoy light refreshments in a celebratory atmosphere.
Friday, November 21, 2025
African Studies Review Distinguished Lecture: Lewis R. Gordon, “Fanon’s African Dream”
Time: 12:00-1:00 PM
Location: Marquis Ballroom AB
The African Studies Review together with the ASA Board launched a distinguished lecture in 2011 featuring state of the art research in African Studies.
Lewis R. Gordon FRSA, is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Global Affairs at the University of Connecticut and Distinguished Scholar at The Most Honourable PJ Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy at The University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. His recent books over the past decade include What Fanon Said: A Philosophical Introduction to His Life and Thought (Fordham UP, Hurst, and Wits UP, 2015; with translations in Chinese and Swedish); Freedom, Justice, and Decolonization (Routledge, 2021); Fear of Black Consciousness (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and Penguin Books, 2022; with translations in German and Portuguese); and Black Existentialism and Decolonizing Knowledge: Writings of Lewis R. Gordon (Bloomsbury, 2023). Thirtieth Anniversary editions of his books Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (Bloomsbury Humanity Classics) and Fanon and the Crisis of European Man (Routledge) will be published in 2025. Gordon is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Cultural Resilience in the African Diaspora: A Celebration of Gullah Geechee Arts
Time: 6:00-7:00 PM
Location: Marquis Ballroom AB
Performers: Aunt Pearlie Sue, Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters, McIntosh County Shouters, Morehouse College Glee Club, Voices of Gullah
Panelists: Anita Singleton Prather (Gullah Traveling Theater), Quintina Carter-Enyi (University of Georgia), Eric Crawford (Morehouse College) Brenton Jordan (Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission), Griffin Lotson (Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission)
Organized and Sponsored by the Atlanta University Center Consortium, Morehouse College Department of Music and Yale University’s ASCEND Initiative and Music and the Black Church Program in collaboration with the ASA’s Local Arrangements Committee.
The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (GGCHC) was established by the U.S. Congress in 2006 to recognize the unique culture of the Gullah Geechee people who have traditionally resided in the coastal areas and the sea islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. In this plenary organized by the Local Arrangements Committee with GGCHC Commissioners, ASA members and the public will experience the rich culture of the region through performances by leading storytellers, singers and “ring shouters.” The Morehouse College Glee Club, known for their performances in African languages and frequent tours to the continent, will interpret a historic spiritual in collaboration with three Gullah arts organizations who are performing together for the first time. After the performance, a panel will briefly address challenges to sustaining this shared heritage of West Africa and the United States.
Saturday, November 22
Women’s Caucus Luncheon and Lecture: Nwando Achebe, “(Be)Coming: Reclaiming the Archive, Reimagining the Self”
Time: 12:00-1:30 PM
Location: Marquis Ballroom AB
Nwando Achebe Jack and Margaret Sweet Endowed Professor of History, and Associate Dean for Access, Faculty Development, and Strategic Implementation, is a multi-award-winning historian at Michigan State University. She is a 2022–2023 ACE Fellow, founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of West African History, co-director of the Christie and Chinua Achebe Foundation, and co-CEO of Achebe Masterworks. She is also an elected member of the Nigerian Academy of Letters and Vice President of the African Studies Association. Achebe received her Ph.D. from UCLA in 2000. In 1996 and 1998, she served as a Ford Foundation and Fulbright-Hays Scholar-inResidence at the University of Nigeria. Her research interests involve the use of oral history in the study of women, gender, and sexuality in Nigeria. Achebe is the author of six books: Farmers, Traders, Warriors, and Kings: Female Power and Authority in Northern Igboland, 1900–1960 (2005); the multi-award-winning The Female King of Colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe (2011); History of West Africa E-Course Book (coauthor, British Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2018); A Companion to African History (co-editor, Wiley-Blackwell, 2019), Holding the World Together: African Women in Changing Perspective (co-editor, Wisconsin University Press, 2019), and Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa (Ohio University Press, 2020). Achebe has received prestigious grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, Wenner-Gren, Woodrow Wilson, Fulbright-Hays, Ford Foundation, World Health Organization, and National Endowment for the Humanities.
ASA Business Meeting & State of the Association
Time: 6:00-7:00 PM
Location: International 1/2
Open to all meeting attendees, in this event the President, Past President, and Executive Director present reports on the state of the Association including important association updates. Board of Directors members transition their leadership roles at the conclusion of the event. Feedback from members is welcome.
Awards Ceremony & Closing Reception: Featuring DJ Yakobo
Time: 7:30-9:00 PM and 9:00-12:00 AM
Location: Marquis Ballroom AB
Every year the Annual Meeting concludes with a reception and an awards ceremony recognizing outstanding work in the field of African Studies. Once the ceremony ends, Annual Meeting attendees are encouraged to enjoy a lively dance party.
