The African Studies Center (ASC) sponsors conferences, lectures, exhibits, film series, and cultural performances throughout the year. These events are designed to foster understanding of Africa among members of the U-M community and the public and to advance the exchange of resources and knowledge between U-M and its partners in Africa.
In addition to our yearly programming, ASC considers funding requests to cosponsor lectures, events, performances, and activities that coincide with the our mission to promote a broad and deep understanding of the region. Request to cosponsor an event»
ASL interpretation will be provided. FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. NO TICKETS NEEDED.
Yaa Gyasi will be the featured speaker for the 2018 Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture. The event will be structured as a conversation between Gyasi and U-M Professors Gaurav Desai and Aida Levy-Hussen.
Gyasi’s award-winning debut novel Homegoing has also been selected as the 2018 Washtenaw Reads book.
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana in 1989, raised in Huntsville, Alabama, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of two half-sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem.
“We are delighted to welcome Yaa Gyasi to Ann Arbor for the 2018 Jill S. Harris Lecture,” said Peggy McCracken, director of the Institute for the Humanities. “Homegoing has found many readers in Ann Arbor and beyond; it's an engrossing novel that demonstrates the power of fiction to explore the ways in which the past shapes our present.”
The Jill S. Harris Memorial Endowment was established in 1985 in memory of Jill Harris, a resident of Chicago and undergraduate student at U-M who passed away due to injuries from an auto accident. Established by Roger and Meredith Harris, Jill’s parents, her grandparents Allan and Norma Harris, and friends, the fund brings a distinguished visitor to campus each year who will appeal to undergraduate students interested in the humanities and the arts.
Yaa Gyasi will be the featured speaker for the 2018 Jill S. Harris Memorial Lecture. The event will be structured as a conversation between Gyasi and U-M Professors Gaurav Desai and Aida Levy-Hussen.
Gyasi’s award-winning debut novel Homegoing has also been selected as the 2018 Washtenaw Reads book.
Yaa Gyasi was born in Ghana in 1989, raised in Huntsville, Alabama, and is a graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. Homegoing follows the parallel paths of two half-sisters and their descendants through eight generations: from the Gold Coast to the plantations of Mississippi, from the American Civil War to Jazz Age Harlem.
“We are delighted to welcome Yaa Gyasi to Ann Arbor for the 2018 Jill S. Harris Lecture,” said Peggy McCracken, director of the Institute for the Humanities. “Homegoing has found many readers in Ann Arbor and beyond; it's an engrossing novel that demonstrates the power of fiction to explore the ways in which the past shapes our present.”
The Jill S. Harris Memorial Endowment was established in 1985 in memory of Jill Harris, a resident of Chicago and undergraduate student at U-M who passed away due to injuries from an auto accident. Established by Roger and Meredith Harris, Jill’s parents, her grandparents Allan and Norma Harris, and friends, the fund brings a distinguished visitor to campus each year who will appeal to undergraduate students interested in the humanities and the arts.
| Building: | Rackham Graduate School (Horace H.) |
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| Website: | |
| Event Type: | Lecture / Discussion |
| Tags: | Africa, African American, Books, History, Literature, Multicultural, Writing |
| Source: | Happening @ Michigan from Institute for the Humanities, African Studies Center |
