# Africana Studies
**Source**: https://africana.sas.upenn.edu/
**Parent**: https://africana.sas.upenn.edu/department-africana-studies/standing-faculty
The Notion of Progress in Black Social Movements
***A Post by Marcia Chatelain in AAIHS' [online roundtable](https://www.aaihs.org/tag/fromrightstolives/)***
Reading [*From Rights to Lives*](https://www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/9780826506658/from-rights-to-lives/) in 2025 forces readers to gain a more sophisticated understanding of the mid-twentieth century civil right struggle while also grappling with their recent memories of the past decade’s Movement for Black Lives. Were things better in 2014 than they are today?
## Upcoming Events
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Mar\
17\
2026
### [The Wisdom of West African Healers: Lessons for a Troubled World](/events/2026/03/17/wisdom-west-african-healers-lessons-troubled-world)
##### Africana Lecture Series
##### Paul Stoller
| Max Kade, Room 329-A\
3401 Walnut Street\
University of Pennsylvania
What can the world learn from the healing practices of West Africa in this global climate? We welcome Paul Stoller to help answer that question with his lecture, "The Wisdom of West African Healers: Lessons for a…
Mar\
19\
2026
### [2026 Africana Studies Graduate Student Colloquium](/events/2026/03/19/2026-africana-studies-graduate-student-colloquium)
##### Beyond Precarity: Afrodiasporic Women's Embodied Reclamation of Labor, Land, & Future
##### Nadia Mosquera Muriel, Laurian Bowles
| Max Kade Center, Room 329-A\
3401 Walnut Street\
University of Pennsylvania
The Department of Africana Studies invites you to our 13th Annual Graduate Student Colloquium. This year we welcome Laurian Bowles and Nadia Mosquera Muriel to speak on the topic, Beyond Precarity: Afrodiasporic…
Mar\
26\
2026
### [Great Decisions: U.S. Engagement of Africa](/events/2026/03/26/great-decisions-us-engagement-africa)
##### Presented by World Affairs Council of Harrisburg
##### Ali Dinar
| Virtual Webinar
Join Dr. Ali Dinar, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Joyce Davis, WACH President, to discuss U.S. Engagement of Africa. Africa’s geopolitical role is growing…