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SUMMARY:Thinking Globally with Du Bois: Reading Black Reconstruction Today
DESCRIPTION:The Africa Institute at Global Studies University (GSU) welcomes Yousuf Al-Bulushi for a lecture titled “Thinking Globally with Du Bois: Reading Black Reconstruction Today,” taking place on Thursday, November 5, 2026, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm GST in the GSU Auditorium, Sharjah.
  
Yousuf Al-Bulushi is the 2026 recipient of the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellowship in Global African Studies at The Africa Institute, GSU, and an Associate Professor at the University of California, Irvine.
 
The session will be moderated by Surafel Wondimu Abebe, Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and Theory at The Africa Institute, GSU.
Abstract
What can W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1935 study, Black Reconstruction, teach us about freedom movements and the fight for abolition and democracy across the world today? How can the theory and history in his book be taken up and applied internationally, to the struggle against neo-fascism in Europe, for land reform in Africa, and for self-determination in Latin America? The recently released volume Reading Black Reconstruction Today (UC Press, 2026, edited by Yousuf Al-Bulushi, Geo Maher, and Damien Sojoyner) takes up these questions by inviting contributors to think about the contemporary and global relevance of certain themes in Du Bois’s work: the propaganda of history, abolition democracy, the general strike, global imperialism, and the dark proletariat. This talk will argue for the ongoing relevance of Du Bois’s key work to our global present. It will do so by offering a political reading of Black Reconstruction that places the text into conversation with the above themes explored in the various contributions to the recently published edited book, Reading Black Reconstruction Today.
Speaker
Yousuf Al-Bulushi is the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow at The Africa Institute, GSU, and Associate Professor in the Department of Global & International Studies at the University of California, Irvine. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BA in Literature from Duke University. His research sits at the intersection of global studies, racial capitalism, political geography, political theory, political economy, urban geography, and African and Africana Studies. Read more.
Moderator
Surafel Wondimu Abebe is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies and Theory at The Africa Institute, GSU. He studied Literature and Cultural Studies at Addis Ababa University, where he served as a lecturer, researcher, and Deputy Dean of Humanities. He earned his Ph.D. in Performance Historiography from the University of Minnesota in 2018 and subsequently held an Assistant Professor position at Addis Ababa University, working across the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Center for African Studies, and College of Performing and Visual Arts. He is also a board member of AGITATE, a multi-genre online journal at the University of Minnesota. Read more.
The lecture forms part of the Fall 2026 Senior and Postdoctoral Fellowship Lecture and Workshop Series, which brings scholars into conversation around research on Africa and its diaspora.
LOCATION:GSU Auditorium
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20261105
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20261105
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