2/10/03

Maulana Karenga

AFRICAN STUDIES EXPERT, ACTIVIST TO SPEAK AT AUBURN

AUBURN -- Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, will present a lecture titled "Enduring Issues in Black History: Freedom, Justice, Power and Peace" on Feb. 13 as part of Auburn University's celebration of Black History Month.

Karenga's presentation, sponsored by the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, will be at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Auburn University Hotel and Dixon Conference Center.

Better known as an activist, Karenga has written 12 books and several articles on African-American studies, including the most widely used introductory text in the discipline. His latest works include selections from the Husia: Sacred Wisdom of Ancient Egypt, Odu Ifa: The Ethical Teachings and Kawaida: A Communitarian African Philosophy.

Karenga has played a key role in black intellectual and political history since the 1960s. He was involved in black arts, black studies and black power movements of the past and more recent movements of Afrocentricity, ancient Egyptian studies and the Million Man March/Day of Absence.

Karenga chairs the President's Task Force on Multicultural Education and Campus Diversity at California State University. He is also chair of The Organization Us, a cultural and social change organization with an emphasis on African-Americans; the National Association of Kawaida Organizations, an organization created to help build a framework for organizations that subscribe to the Kawaida philosophy; and executive director of the Kawaida Institute of Pan-African Studies in Los Angeles.

Karenga holds a Ph.D. in political science from the U.S. International University and a Ph.D. in social ethics from the University of Southern California.

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CONTACT: Keenan Grenell, 334/844-4184.