Shared Histories Symposium

The Shared Histories Symposium is designed to share the results of the three-year Gilder Lehrman Center Shared Histories Africa Institute, funded by the Robina Foundation, with a broad base of teachers and students in New England. The Shared Histories program provides ongoing opportunities for teachers and students in the United States and Africa to discuss shared concerns about equity, representation, and human rights. Secondary school teachers and administrators; university faculty, students, and staff; members of the general public are invited to participate in this series of online webinars.

During this symposium, U.S. teachers who have been working with South African and Sierra Leonean teachers, along with a selection of their students, will present classroom projects generated from the GLC Shared Histories Africa Institute. This program is sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the MacMillan Center at Yale University, with support from the Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund.

Keynote Address: Young People as Agents of Social Change
Saturday, September 12, 2020 • 9am EST

Keynote address by Seth Mazibuko, followed by a conversation between Seth Mazibuko and Dr. Dan Magaziner, Yale University. Audience questions to follow.

Seth Mazibuko was a student organizer and leader of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, which lead to his arrest, conviction and sentencing to Robben Island for seven years. He continues to be involved in activism for social justice, most recently working with the South African Human Rights Committee, the June 16 Youth Development Foundation, and the Gauteng Housing Crisis Committee.

Dan Magaziner is a historian of 20th century Africa at Yale University and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Council for African Studies at the MacMillan Center. He is the author of two books: The Law and the Prophets: Black Consciousness in South Africa, 1968 – 1977 (2010) and The Art of Life in South Africa (2016).

Register for this Keynote here: https://yale.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_zTsp_GQ_TOC345-F_4JTow

Panel 1: TransAtlantic Collaborative Programming
Saturday, September 19, 2020 • 9am EST

Tom Thurston, Moderator

Waltrina Kirkland-Mullins teaches third grade at New Haven’s Davis Academy of Arts.

Mary Abueng Khuduge is a teacher at Regents Park Primary School, in Johannesburg, South Africa. She studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where she received a Bachelor of Primary Education.

Teresa Willis, an educator in the Bronx, is the organizer of Middle Passages, a proposed community school for the Bronx.

Victoria Alupke, formerly a teacher at the Hyde Leadership Charter School in the Bronx, has since relocated to Washington, DC, where she is a special education teacher at the Paul Charter School.

Sven Glietenburg, formerly a teacher at the Thaba Jabula Secondary School in Soweto, is now studying for his Master’s degree at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

Register for this discussion here: https://yale.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ynmsWJo8RX-0g7obcooEOg

Panel 2: Teaching in Times of COVID-19
Saturday, September 26th, 2020 • 9am EST

Vickie Remoe, Moderator

Seila Senoamadi teaches at Missourilaan Secondary School in Eldorado Park, Soweto, South Africa. Seila did her studies at the University of the Witswatersrand and the University of Johannesburg.

Ibrahim Lamin is a teacher at at Beacon High School, in Freetown, and the author of Prime History of Sierra Leone for Senior Secondary School (2016). He was educated at the University of Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College.

Kevin Staton is the librarian for the Fairfield School District two high schools, in Fairfield, Connecticut. He completed his studies at Howard University.

This discussion will be prerecorded and available for viewing here on the above date and time.

Panel 3: Youth Activism in the Classroom and Community
Saturday, October 3, 2020 • 9am EST

Seth Mazibuko and Tom Thurston interview student activists from Connecticut, and South Africa about issues and strategies for leading change in their schools and communities.

The Shared Histories Panel “Youth Activism in the Classroom and Community,” originally scheduled for Saturday, October 3rd, has been postponed. We will be rescheduling it for later in October. Please stay tuned.