Image: Joseph-Désiré Otabela Otabela, teaching professor of Spanish and director of graduate studies in Spanish, with Mizzou undergraduate students who attended the keynote presentation.
Keynote speaker M'baré N'gom, Dean of Arts and Humanities at Morgan State University.
Scholars and artists gathered at Mizzou to explore identity, migration, race, memory, and citizenship during the Afro-Romance Institute Conference: Borders, Belonging, and the African Diaspora, April 17-18, 2026.
This year’s interdisciplinary conference featured a keynote presentation from M'baré N'gom, dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Morgan State University. His talk explored language, identity, and artistic expression in African literature written in European languages.
During panel discussions and roundtables, attendees examined how diasporic communities navigate and reimagine boundaries through Afro-feminist thought, decolonial perspectives, language, hybridity, and performance.
Featured documentary screenings examined the lives and legacies of Manuel Zapata Olivella, a Colombian physician, anthropologist, and writer, and Eugenio Hernández Espinosa, the influential Afro-Hispanic playwright and founder of Havana’s Caribbean Theater Group.
Housed within Mizzou’s College of Arts and Science, the Afro-Romance Institute fosters intellectual exchange and collaboration across disciplines, creating a space where perspectives converge to honor the legacy and ongoing contributions of global communities.
