Presenter: Dr. Michael Sawyer (Colorado College, USA)

 

Chairperson: Dr. Mjiba Frehiwot (African Studies, University of Ghana)

 

Abstract:         

Malcolm X employs the term “Black Minded” and seems to see it as a way of being that facilitates a revolutionary consciousness that is the foundation of Black liberation. This talk will explore the possibility that Malcolm X’s notion of being Black Minded implies a complex philosophical system that is the basis for a form of cognition that is self-authorizing and always radical in its disposition. The talk will argue that this form of Black cognition, a product of Black Mindedness is the necessary condition of progressing beyond what Du Bois understands as the lack of true self-consciousness of marginalized subjects. 

 

Bio:

Michael Sawyer is currently an Assistant Professor at Colorado College and was recently appointed Associate Professor of Literature at the University of Pittsburgh where he will begin work in the fall. His monographs include An Africana Philosophy of Temporality: Homo Liminalis and Black Minded: The Political Philosophy of Malcolm X.