November 17, 2004

Visiting Professor to Offer Views on African Americans and Biblical Scriptures at Michaelsen Lecture Nov. 30

Bill Schlotter

Vincent L. Wimbush, a professor of religion at Claremont Graduate University and a Michaelsen Endowed Visiting Scholar at UC Santa Barbara, will discuss "Excavating Darkness: African Americans, Scriptures, and the Quest for Social Memory" at 4 p.m. Tuesday, November 30.

The talk -- the annual Michaelsen Endowed Visiting Scholars Lecture -- is free and open to the public. It will be held in the McCune Conference Room (Room 6020) of UCSB's Humanities and Social Sciences Building.

"The lecture represents part of a multidisciplinary book project in process on African Americans' engagements of the Bible as a wedge for theorizing about the history of this complex people," said Wimbush, who also serves as the director of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures at Claremont. "Attention will be given to the uses of scriptures among African Americans as channels through which their complex experiences are read and as sites of memory for the reclamation of an affirming past, the acquisition of social power, and ongoing social formation."

The talk is presented by UCSB's Department of Religious Studies.

The Michaelsen Endowed Visiting Scholar series commemorates the late Robert S. Michaelsen, an esteemed member of the department for many years.

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