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Umd Panel Discusses Black Diversity, Culture Dynamics Within Community

March 10, 2015 College of Arts and Humanities | The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Umd Panel Discusses Black Diversity, Culture Dynamics Within Community

A panel hosted by the African American studies department takes on identity in the black community.

By Lexie Schapitl, The Diamondback

Sangeetha Madhavan saw a need to discuss black diversity when she noticed her students struggling to understand one another because of cultural differences.

Being “black” means different things to different people, said Madhavan, an African-American studies professor.

As the moderator for last night’s panel, “Engaging Black Diversity: A Conversation with UMD Students,” Madhavan shared her observations and facilitated a discussion on identity with panelists and the audience.

“This event is really about and for students,” Madhavan said. “We’d like to hear what the students have to say about this issue of black diversity and what does it mean to be African-American versus Nigerian or Jamaican, first-generation, second-generation?”

Panelists Onoso Imoagene, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania; Michelle Rowley, a women’s studies professor at this university; and three undergraduate students distinguished between “black” and “African-American” labels.

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