Yatta Kiazolu, UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnic Studies, UC San Diego

About: 1960, African decolonization on the world stage presented greater opportunity to actualize new political terrain in the interest of people of African descent.  Committed to this cause, the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) under the tenure of then-president Dorothy Height, emphasized building relationships with African women nationalists for both its leaders and members, many of whom traveled  to the continent for the first time. Through solidarity with African women nationalists preparing for new roles in emerging societies, Council women’s on-the-ground interactions helped advance their case for Black women’s inclusion in public life at home, and more broadly, for full citizenship. This research explores the gendered Black global imaginary produced by contradictory investments in uplift, nation-state inclusion co-existing alongside deep commitments to African decolonization, and the ways the politics of diasporic solidarity respond to the needs and pressures of citizenship. These experiences offer an entry point into Black women’s global struggle for self-emancipation in the age of decolonization, civil, and human rights.

Yatta Kiazolu is a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego with community engagement and research interests at the intersection of the contemporary African diaspora, African American history, and Women and Gender studies. She received her Ph.D. in History from UCLA. 

Sponsored by the UCR Gender and Sexuality Studies Department and the Center for Ideas and Society.

Register: https://bit.ly/GSSTKiazolu