On Tuesday, December 5th, GSA-TROPOS welcomed Dr. Ndiaye to speak about her book, Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race.

Her academic work examines how race, particularly blackness, was constructed and represented in early modern performance culture. Dr. Ndiaye analyzes specific techniques of impersonation of Afro-diasporic people used by white performers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. She demonstrates how through the performance techniques–black-up, blackspeak, and black dances–were crucial in the formation of racial identities and stereotypes that have existed throughout history.

TROPOS is a non-profit student organization that represents graduate students in the Department of Romance and Classical Studies and provides these students with the opportunity to gain valuable experiences in scholarly dialogue and publication.

Dr. Ndiaye was an excellent and impressive guest speaker, and her presentation served as an inspiration to the scholars in TROPOS. They are very grateful for her taking the time to share insight on her book.