Negotiating Spaces: Black Identity, Culture and Politics in South America

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Presenters

Luis Gilberto Murillo
From 1998 to 1999, Luis G. Murillo served as elected Governor of the predominantly Afro-Colombian department of Choco, he was also executive director and deputy director of the Choco and Bogotá environmental protection agencies, respectively. In 2000, Governor Murillo was kidnapped in Colombia . Upon release, he fled the country with his family, receiving asylum in the United States , where he began work in Washington , D.C. As US-Colombia Policy Coordinator for Lutheran World Relief (LWR), Murillo works to make the voices of marginalized Colombians heard in the policy debate in Washington , D.C. His work is part of LWR's efforts to build peace in Colombia through local projects backed by education and advocacy in the United States . Mr. Murillo is one of the most active Afro-Colombian voices in the Washington , DC policy debate on Colombia . He has been a catalytic force in creating links between Afro-Colombian and African –American civil society, public, and popular elected leaders. Moreover, Murillo is a well-known political advocate for U.S. aid that promotes peace with justice in Colombia and, hence calls for broad changes in U.S. policy toward his country.

Antonio Tillis, Ph.D.
Dr. Antonio Tillis is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies and Foreign Languages and Literatures at Purdue University . His research includes literature and cultural development of the Spanish-speaking African Diaspora in Latin America , in particular Colombia , Venezuela , the Dominican Republic and Cuba . His research also includes comparative analysis between literature of the African American tradition and that of Afro-Latin America. He has published numerous articles within his areas of research and has a forthcoming book with the University of Missouri Press on the fictional works of Afro-Colombian writer Manuel Zapata Olivella (available in July 2005).

Lyneise Williams, Ph.D.
Lyneise Williams is a Carolina Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Art Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . In May 2004 she received her Ph. D. in the Department of the History of Art from Yale University . Her dissertation examined visual representations of national identity in the paintings of Pedro Fiagri (1861-1938), focusing on his depictions of Afro-Uruguayans. Currently, Williams is conducting new research exploring the similarities and differences between the racializing strategies of Latin America and African American artists in their representation of blacks.

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