Location: Mergenthaler 431

Please join the 2025–2026 cohort of Chloe Center graduate travel and research grant awardees as they present on their in-progress research. This workshop will also include information about future grant opportunities from the Chloe Center.

We will feature short research presentations from:

Emmanuel John Agangzesum Awine (History): ‘Hassana, Not Adwoa’: The Politics of Naming, Un-Naming, and Resistance in the Shadow of the Slave Trade (Ghana & Burkina Faso)

Abstract: This presentation examines the powerful politics of naming among the Nankanise people of northern Ghana and southern Burkina Faso. It highlights a significant but often overlooked form of resistance against the slave raids of the 18th and 19th centuries that devastated their communities. Moving beyond usual narratives centered on coastal trade hubs and African involvement, the paper focuses on the experiences of “raided communities.” Drawing on oral archival records and site analysis, it argues that naming served multiple purposes: as a means of survival, of preserving memory, and of showing defiance.

Hans Frex (Modern Languages & Literatures): From Black Mourning to Political Resistance: Mery Cortéz’ Fight for Justice for Romario Veloz in Chile

Abstract: Mery Cortez, an Ecuadorian migrant in Chile, lost her son Romario Veloz when military personnel shot him during the 2019 social uprising—one of the few cases of state violence to achieve justice, with racist intent proven in court. Drawing on Williams’ “analytics of maternal grief,” this analysis argues that Black maternal mourning navigates between vulnerability and political agency, transforming grief into resistance while linking Pinochet’s repressive legacy to contemporary anti-Black violence in the Black Pacific.

Minah Kang (Political Science): Staging Pacific: Hawai‘i, the Institute of Pacific Relations, and Regional World Making

Abstract: This presentation argues that regional visions were central to how the global order of the interwar period was imagined and assembled. Rather than internationalism simply replacing empire, the Institute of Pacific Relations exemplifies how contested regional ideas helped translate imperial legacies into internationalist frameworks. This transformation illustrates how imperial knowledge was reconstituted within international structures, setting the stage for my broader dissertation on how regional visions reshaped imperial space into international order throughout the twentieth century.

Mateus Mendonça (Sociology): Platforms of Transnational Solidarity: Labor, Migration, and Filmmaking 

Abstract: This presentation will discuss the research and organizing journey of Brazilian delivery platform workers who traveled across Italy, Portugal, and the United Kingdom to meet migrant worker organizations, many also rooted in the Global South. Through these in-depth encounters, they exchanged experiences of labor, livelihood, and struggle within the platform economy and discussed the possibilities for transnational connections and mutual strengthening.  Alongside, these workers collectively documented this journey producing material for a documentary film. The presentation reflects the mutual learning and discusses how filmmaking can be an important tool for academic research, political solidarity, and processes of class formation.

This event is open to JHU graduate and undergraduate students and faculty.