By Tess Phillips
For The Diamondback
The University of Maryland’s Africa Through Language and Area Studies initiative hosted its annual research conference on Thursday and Friday in HJ Patterson Hall, featuring roundtables, panel presentations and open discussions.
The group, also known as ATLAS, operates under this university’s division of research and works to gather information and provide further understanding of the African continent and its “growing global influence,” according to its website.
The two-day conference allowed students and faculty members at this university and other universities, including Howard University and American University, to come together and share their research findings.
[Trump’s plans to weaken education department could hurt higher education, experts warn]
The conference’s keynote speaker was Kwame Edwin Otu, an associate professor of African anthropology at Georgetown University.
Otu, whose research focuses on the global politics of e-waste, presented his keynote address titled “Colonial Inhalations: E-waste Work and Wastemen in Necropolitical Ghana” on Thursday evening.
Electronic waste, or e-waste, is one of the world’s most rapidly increasing solid waste streams and consists of discarded electrical and electronic devices, according to the World Health Organization.
Otu’s presentation included research on the waste workers in Ghana and the health effects they face while dealing with e-waste. He also works to examine the lasting impacts of slavery during the British occupation of Ghana.
He referred to Ghana as a “vampire state,” a term to describe how colonial states were “not designed to sustain indigenous life, but rather to extract from it.”
Miranda Abadir, one of the group’s principal investigators, helped organize the conference. Abadir emphasized the importance of having groups such as ATLAS at this university.
[Researchers detail new findings about UMD’s ties to slavery at 1856 Project update]
ATLAS provides a space for community members to share and discuss their research on Africa, Abadir said.
“It really gives people that space, but then also sheds a light on an area that really doesn’t always get a spotlight,” Abadir said. “We need more people to get involved and engaged.”
A’Ishah Baxter, a senior history major, said she attended the event as an extra credit assignment for her professor, but ended up finding the discussion interesting.
Baxter said the event allowed attendees to learn from experts about subjects they didn’t realize would be of interest to them.
“I never considered myself super interested in geography or decolonial studies, let alone both,” Baxter said. “To hear the perspectives of the speakers, I was just like, ‘Wow, this is something I’ve never thought of,’ but it’s actually so relevant, even to just my own nature.”
