Center for International and Regional Studies

CIRS Book Talk: Halfway to Freedom: The Struggles and Strivings of African American in Washington, DC by Maurice Jackson
2026-04-13 13:00 - 14:00 (Asia/Qatar)
In Conversation with Professor Maurice Jackson

The book, set to be published next year, traces the struggles of African Americans for equality and human rights from 1780 to 2020. Through the history of Washington DC, it shows how Black lived experiences, political mobilization, and resistance mirror broader national struggles. By centering the city as both a symbolic and material site of power, the book tells the history of the United States through Black Washingtonians.

Maurice Jackson teaches in the History and African American Studies Departments and is Affiliated Professor of Music (Jazz) at Georgetown University. Before coming to academe, he worked as a longshoreman, shipyard rigger, construction worker and community organizer. He is author of Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism, co-editor of African-Americans and the Haitian Revolution, of Quakers and their Allies in the Abolitionist Cause,1754-1808 and DC Jazz: Stories of Jazz Music in Washington, DC. Jackson wrote the liner notes to the 2 jazz CDs by Charlie Haden and Hank Jones, Steal Away: Spirituals, Folks Songs and Hymns and Come Sunday. He has recently lectured in France, Turkey, Italy, Puerto Rico, and Qatar. He served on Georgetown University Slavery Working Group. A 2009 inductee into the Washington, D.C. Hall of Fame he was appointed by the Mayor and the DC Council as Inaugural Chair of the DC Commission on African American Affairs (2013-16) and presented “An Analysis: African American Employment, Population & Housing Trends in Washington, D.C.” to the Mayor and elected leaders of the D.C. government in 2017. He is completing work on Halfway to Freedom: The Struggles and Strivings of African American in Washington, DC to be published by Duke University Press. His next books will be We Knew No Other Way: The Many-Sided Struggle for Freedom and Black Radicalism: A Very Short Introduction.

(Re)Collecting Sudan: Art and Culture Archives Workshop II
2026-04-15 08:00 - 17:00
On September 21, 2025, the Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS) hosted its second workshop for the “(Re)Collecting Sudan: Art and Culture Archives” research initiative. ​This workshop served as a platform for project contributors to engage in detailed discussions and receive constructive feedback on their submitted papers.

To ensure a thorough review process and provide robust feedback for all submissions, the workshop was organized into five thematically focused sessions. These sessions included Historical Archives, Digital Archives, Art Archives, Lyrical Archives, and Archives of Exile. This strategic segmentation allowed for in-depth engagement with each paper, ensuring that discussions were contextualized within their specific scholarly domains and fostering specialized insights.

The “Historical Archives” section initiated the discussions, featuring two prominent papers. Eiman Hussein, Talal Afifi, and Erica Carter’s paper “Experiencing Hussein Shariffe: Encounters with the Archives—A Collective Auto-Ethnography,” offered a unique, shared exploration of historical interactions. This was followed by Ahmad Sikainga’s “The Archives of Leisure and Popular Culture in Colonial and Post-Colonial Khartoum,” which meticulously examined the cultural nuances preserved within these historical records.

Transitioning to contemporary approaches, the “Digital Archives” session showcased three insightful papers. Amna Elidrissy, Zainab Gaafar, and Helen Mallinson co-authored “Live Museums: An Ecosystem for Safeguarding Heritage,” highlighting innovative digital platforms for cultural preservation. Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann and Aya Hassan then explored modern archiving in “Instagram as Archive: Sudanese Artists and Political Memory,” demonstrating the role of social media in capturing historical narratives. The session concluded with Marilyn Deegan, Wahbi Abdalfattah Abdalrahman, and Locale’s “Sudan Memory: Building and Narrating the Digital Archive,” detailing efforts in constructing comprehensive digital repositories.

Further expanding the scope, the “Art Archives” session addressed the intersection of art and historical documentation through two compelling papers. Reem Aljeally and Katarzyna Grabska’s “Accidental Archiving? Questioning Curation and Research as Forms of Archiving in the Midst of Political Violence and War in Sudan” critically examined spontaneous archiving practices during conflict. Rahiem Shadad then presented “What Can We Learn from Sudan’s Collective Image-Making History?” emphasizing the value of visual cultural heritage.

The “Lyrical Archives” session highlighted the power of oral and poetic traditions, featuring Qutouf Elobaid’s “Songs of the Barracks: Sudanese Poetic Archives of the 2018 December Revolution,” and Ruba El Melik and Reem Abbas’s “Women Archiving Sudan: How Women Use Fashion, Songs, and Poetry to Preserve History,” both illustrating the profound role of lyrical expression in documenting historical events.

The workshop concluded with the “Archives of Exile” session, which explored the preservation of cultural memory in diaspora. Bentley Brown’s paper, “Despite the Distance Between Us: Attempts to Preserve Cultural Memory through Filmmaking-in-Exile,” showcased cinematic endeavors to bridge geographical divides. Finally, Anna Reumert’s “An Archive of Exile: Sudanese Migrant Labor and Political Solidarity in Lebanon” shed light on the archival significance of migrant experiences and collective action.

The final revised drafts will be collected by CIRS with an aim of publishing either an edited volume or a special issue of a journal in the future.

To view the working group agenda, click here

Read more about this research initiative

Participants and Discussants:

Wahbi Abdulrahman, Nile Valley University, Sudan

Rund Alarabi, The Städelschule (Hochschule für Bildende Künste), Germany

Muez Ali, Earthna: Center for a Sustainable Future at Qatar Foundation

Reem Aljeally, The Muse Multi Studios

Zahra Babar, CIRS, Georgetown University in Qatar

Misba Bhatti, CIRS, Georgetown University in Qatar

Bentley Brown, American University of Sharjah

Erica Carter, King’s College

Marilyn Deegan, King’s College

Amna Elidrissy, Safeguarding Sudan’s Living Heritage (SSLH)

Ruba El Melik, Independent Researcher

Qutouf Elobaid, Locale

Nafisa Eltahir, Locale

Larissa-Diana Fuhrmann, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt

Katarzyna Grabska, University of Geneva

Suha Hasan, Mawane

Aya Hassan, Georgetown University in Qatar

Noor Hussain, CIRS, Georgetown University in Qatar

Eiman Hussein, King’s College

Ala Kheir, Independent Researcher

Helen Mallinson, Safeguarding Sudan’s Living Heritage (SSLH)

Suzi Mirgani, CIRS, Georgetown University in Qatar

Anna Simone Ruemert, The New School, US

Rahiem Shadad, Downtown Gallery

Aala Sharfi, Locale

Omnia Shawkat, Andariya

Haneen Sidhahmed, Sudan Tapes Archive

Ahmad Sikainga, Ohio State University

Sabreen Taha, CIRS, Georgetown University in Qatar

Article by CIRS Research Analyst Misba Bhatti
