The Department of Pan-African studies at Kent State will host a reception at 6 p.m. followed by a historical lecture Wednesday in Oscar Ritchie Hall.

Historian Dr. Michael Gomez, professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University, will present his lecture, “Was Culture a Location of Resistance in the Americas? Examining the African Experience,” at 7 p.m. following the reception in the front hall of the first-floor gallery in Oscar Ritchie Hall.

“There’s a lot of folk wisdom about some of the popular music that we hear today, like hip-hop,” said Wendy Wilson-Fall, chairperson for Pan-African Studies. “But a lot of people don’t really understand how Americans came to have that music.”

Chairpersons in the Department of Pan-African Studies have been working almost two years to bring Gomez to Kent State.

“I wrote a proposal to the Ohio Council for the Humanities and we got enough money to bring him,” Wilson-Fall said.

Gomez will cost between $1,200 and $1,500 for the two-hour presentation according to Wilson-Fall.

He is the author of five books on the topic of West African history and African Diaspora.

The lecture and preceding reception are free to all students, staff and public. For more information, contact Wilson-Fall at [email protected].

“Listening to him talk is really inspiring because he tells a story of how culture was used by people to make their lives in America,” Wilson-Fall said.

Contact Amy Cooknick at [email protected].