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Naminata Diabate, the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow at The Africa Institute, participated as a speaker at the Film Criticism Forum, Spirituality in Cinema, held during The Islamic Arts Biennale on March 28-29, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Diriyah Biennale Foundation’s Islamic Arts Biennale provides a holistic platform for new discourse around the Islamic arts, offering an unparalleled platform for learning, research, and insight into the genre. The exhibition takes place every two years and will be hosted at the Aga Khan award-winning Western Hajj Terminal in the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, a city that for centuries has represented a junction point for cultural exchange and a venue that acts a port of entry for millions of pilgrims on their journey to Mecca and Medina. For more information, visit biennale.org.sa.
The Film Criticism Forum features screenings and critical forums, aiming to establish an international platform for an enriched film experience and a forum for critical exchange in the region and beyond. The event invited academic bodies concerned with local and international cinematic studies and research and local, regional, and international media outlets concerned with the cinema movement in the Kingdom.
During the forum, Professor Diabate delivered a presentation titled “Notes Toward Cinematic Practices and Gender Debates.” Her presentation drew on two films: the 2008 feature documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” by American filmmakers Gini Reticker and Abigail Disney, which focuses on Liberian women, and the 1998 gender-bending farce “Taafe Fanga” (Skirt Power) by Malian filmmaker Adama Drabo, which explores the lives of Malian women.
“In my presentation, I expose how these films highlight gender debates through innovative and entertaining cinematic practices. Ultimately, the paper defines the ever-shifting contours of spirituality as it intersects with established religious precepts and women’s aspirations,” said Professor Diabate. As a scholar of African and African diaspora studies, sexuality and gender studies, and with linguistic expertise in Malinké, French, English, Nouchi, Spanish, and Latin, her work aims to redefine our understanding of specific forms of embodied agency in the neoliberal present in global Africa.
In addition to her role as the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow, Professor Diabate is also an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. She is a member of the core faculty in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (FGSS) and is affiliated with the Department of Literatures in English, Romance Studies, Africana Studies and Research Center (ASRC), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies (LGBT), Performing and Media Arts (PMA), and Visual Studies. Diabate earned her PhD in Comparative Literature with dual concentrations in African Diaspora Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011.
Professor Diabate engages with multiple sources, including novels from the 20th and 21st centuries, online and social media, pictorial arts, film, journalism, and oral traditions from Africa, black America, Afro-Hispanic America, and the French Antilles.
Naminata Diabate, the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow at The Africa Institute, participated as a speaker at the Film Criticism Forum, Spirituality in Cinema, held during The Islamic Arts Biennale on March 28-29, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Naminata Diabate, the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow at The Africa Institute, participated as a speaker at the Film Criticism Forum, Spirituality in Cinema, held during The Islamic Arts Biennale on March 28-29, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Diriyah Biennale Foundation’s Islamic Arts Biennale provides a holistic platform for new discourse around the Islamic arts, offering an unparalleled platform for learning, research, and insight into the genre. The exhibition takes place every two years and will be hosted at the Aga Khan award-winning Western Hajj Terminal in the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, a city that for centuries has represented a junction point for cultural exchange and a venue that acts a port of entry for millions of pilgrims on their journey to Mecca and Medina. For more information, visit biennale.org.sa.
The Film Criticism Forum features screenings and critical forums, aiming to establish an international platform for an enriched film experience and a forum for critical exchange in the region and beyond. The event invited academic bodies concerned with local and international cinematic studies and research and local, regional, and international media outlets concerned with the cinema movement in the Kingdom.
During the forum, Professor Diabate delivered a presentation titled “Notes Toward Cinematic Practices and Gender Debates.” Her presentation drew on two films: the 2008 feature documentary “Pray the Devil Back to Hell” by American filmmakers Gini Reticker and Abigail Disney, which focuses on Liberian women, and the 1998 gender-bending farce “Taafe Fanga” (Skirt Power) by Malian filmmaker Adama Drabo, which explores the lives of Malian women.
“In my presentation, I expose how these films highlight gender debates through innovative and entertaining cinematic practices. Ultimately, the paper defines the ever-shifting contours of spirituality as it intersects with established religious precepts and women’s aspirations,” said Professor Diabate. As a scholar of African and African diaspora studies, sexuality and gender studies, and with linguistic expertise in Malinké, French, English, Nouchi, Spanish, and Latin, her work aims to redefine our understanding of specific forms of embodied agency in the neoliberal present in global Africa.
In addition to her role as the Ali A. Mazrui Senior Fellow, Professor Diabate is also an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. She is a member of the core faculty in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (FGSS) and is affiliated with the Department of Literatures in English, Romance Studies, Africana Studies and Research Center (ASRC), Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies (LGBT), Performing and Media Arts (PMA), and Visual Studies. Diabate earned her PhD in Comparative Literature with dual concentrations in African Diaspora Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2011.
Professor Diabate engages with multiple sources, including novels from the 20th and 21st centuries, online and social media, pictorial arts, film, journalism, and oral traditions from Africa, black America, Afro-Hispanic America, and the French Antilles.
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