The Inaugural International Editorial Board Seminar of Frontiers of African Diaspora Studies and the Establishment Ceremony of the Institute of African and Afro-Diaspora Studies at UESTC Successfully Convened
On May 24, 2026, the inaugural international
editorial board seminar of Frontiers of African Diaspora Studies (FADS)
and the establishment ceremony of the Institute of African and Afro-Diaspora Studies
at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) were
successfully convened. The international seminar was co-hosted by the
Professional Committee of China-Africa Comparative Studies of Language and
Culture (CACSEC), Chinese Association for Comparative Studies of Foreign
Languages and Cultures, and the School of Foreign Languages, UESTC; organized
by the Editorial Office of Frontiers of African Diaspora Studies; and
co-sponsored by the Department of African American and African Diaspora
Studies, Indiana University Bloomington; the School of Foreign Languages, Henan
Medical University; the Center for West African Studies of UESTC; and the
School of Law and Humanities, China University of Mining and
Technology-Beijing. The conference brought together over twenty distinguished
scholars from across the globe who have made seminal contributions to African
and Afro-diaspora studies.
The proceedings commenced with welcome addresses delivered by Prof. Hu Jiehui, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, UESTC, and Prof. Jin Yanfei, Director of the UESTC Journals Department. Distinguished remarks were then delivered by Prof. Carolyn Calloway-Thomas (Indiana University Bloomington), International Editor-in-Chief of FADS; Prof. Li Anshan (Peking University), former President of the China-Africa Studies Association and Academic Advisor of FADS; Prof. Zhu Zhenwu (Shanghai Normal University), Chief Expert of the National Major Project “African English Literature Studies” and Academic Advisor of FADS; Prof. Lewis R. Gordon (University of Connecticut), Honorary Editor-in-Chief; Prof. Zhang Feilong, Dean of the School of Foreign Languages, Henan Medical University; and Prof. Zhang Lianqiao (Guangzhou University), Academic Supporter.
The attending scholars and guests extended
their warm congratulations to the founding of Frontiers of African Diaspora
Studies and the establishment of the Institute of African and
Afro-Diaspora Studies at UESTC, offering high commendations. They concurred
that, as China’s first international academic journal dedicated to African
diaspora studies, FADS, with its innovative research paradigms, will
exert a positive and far-reaching academic role in advancing the disciplinary
development of African and Afro-diaspora studies and in deepening China-Africa
civilizational mutual learning and cross-cultural dialogue.
Prof. Carolyn Calloway-Thomas and Prof.
Lewis R. Gordon, drawing upon the intellectual lineage of the Black
Intellectual Tradition, fully affirmed the profound academic, historical, and
cultural significance embodied in the journal’s founding. Prof. Calloway-Thomas
underscored that the journal’s establishment furnishes a vital academic
platform for the pioneering and exploration of African and Afro-diaspora
studies within interdisciplinary frameworks. Prof. Gordon, situating his
analysis within the deeper context of human knowledge production and the
eternal inquiry into “the love of humanity,” elucidated the imperative and
possible trajectories for FADS to advance African and Afro-diaspora
studies in depth from a global perspective against the backdrop of
globalization. Prof. Li Anshan and Prof. Zhu Zhenwu, building upon China’s
extant academic foundations and substantial achievements in African studies and
African literary studies, further expounded the distinctive contemporary value
of FADS’s founding and its significant contribution to constructing an
autonomous knowledge system of philosophy and social sciences with Chinese
characteristics.
During the seminar, editorial board
representatives including Prof. Lauri Scheyer (California State University),
Prof. Ignatius Chukwumah (Federal University Wukari), Prof. Robert Muponde
(University of the Witwatersrand), Assoc. Prof. Grace A. Musila (University of
the Witwatersrand), Prof. Zhang Feilong (Henan Medical University), Prof. Zou
Tao (UESTC), Assoc. Prof. Li Beilei (Zhejiang Normal University), and Assoc.
Prof. Zhou Yingli (China University of Mining and Technology-Beijing) delivered
thematic presentations. The scholars engaged in in-depth discussions
encompassing the editorial board’s mandate and positioning, the journal’s
developmental strategy, and frontier disciplinary issues, offering strategic
counsel for the long-term development of FADS.
In the final session, Prof. Tan Huijuan,
Editor-in-Chief of FADS, expressed her profound gratitude to the
domestic and international scholars and experts who have supported the
journal’s establishment, and articulated her vision and aspirations for the
journal’s future development. Prof. Tan stated: “Our path forward must embody
the Poetics of Relation that Édouard Glissant so fervently championed. The
dual, mirroring ‘A’s of our emblem---intertwined at the crest, converging at
the base---visualize a shared genesis and a shared destiny. They dismantle the
myth of a static, essentialist identity, embracing instead the hybridity of a
fluid cultural ontology: black enfolding white, white harboring black. FADS shall
be a contact zone where the African continent and its global diasporas engage
in a dialectical, mutually constitutive dialogue.”
Prof. Zou Tao, Director of the Institute of
African and Afro-Diaspora Studies at UESTC, delivered a prospective address on
the Institute’s future vision and strategic planning. Prof. Zou expressed that
the Institute is committed to consolidating domestic and international academic
resources and constructing a high-caliber international academic exchange
platform. She anticipates that, with the robust support of colleagues across
the scholarly community, the Institute will gradually evolve into a premier research
institution in African and Afro-diaspora studies possessing significant
academic influence and international repute.
In his concluding remarks, Dean Hu Jiehui pointed
out that the founding of Frontiers of African Diaspora Studies and the
establishment of the Institute of African and Afro-Diaspora Studies at
UESTC will surely vigorously propel the in-depth expansion of related research
fields domestically and infuse new momentum into deepening international
academic cooperation and promoting civilizational mutual learning and
cross-cultural dialogue.
