Exploring Racial Impersonation: A Roundtable Discussion
Date: April 10, 2025, 7 PM
Location: Hemispheric Institute, 20 Cooper Square
Language: English

Join us for a compelling evening that examines the persistence of blackface and racial impersonation across cultures and historical contexts. This event brings together prominent scholars and artists to discuss the enduring legacy of these practices and how they shape ideologies of race-making.

This roundtable will feature:

Noémie Ndiaye (University of Chicago), author of the award-winning Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race (Penn Press, 2022).
Danielle Roper (University of Chicago), author of the forthcoming Hemispheric Blackface: Impersonation and Nationalist Fictions in the Americas (Duke UP, 2025).
Silvia Albert Sopale, Spanish Afrodescendant actress and writer, and Spring 2025 KJC Chair at Espacio de Culturas @KJCC.
Moderated by Jill Lane (NYU), the discussion will explore themes central to Albert Sopale’s critically acclaimed play Blackface y otras vergüenzas, which interrogates blackface in contemporary Spain and its global resonances. The conversation will situate these practices within broader historical and geographical frameworks, from early modern Europe to the contemporary Americas.

Panel Highlights
Investigating the persistence of blackface across centuries and continents.
Understanding its role in shaping racial ideologies.
Exploring how contemporary artists and scholars confront and dismantle these practices.
This event is sponsored by Espacio de Culturas @KJCC and co-produced in partnership with the Hemispheric Institute, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Center for the Humanities, the Center for Africa and the African Diaspora, CMEP (Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity, and Strategic Innovation), the Medieval and Renaissance Center, and the Department of Media, Culture and Communication.

About the Speakers

Noémie Ndiaye is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago. Her work focuses on early modern English, French, and Spanish theater with a critical lens on race. She is the author of Scripts of Blackness and co-editor of Seeing Race Before Race.
Danielle Roper is an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. Her research centers on racial and queer performance in Latin America and the Caribbean. She is the curator of Visualizing/Performing Blackness in the Afterlives of Slavery: A Caribbean Archive.
Silvia Albert Sopale is a Barcelona-based actress, writer, and cultural organizer. She is the founder of Periferia Cimarronas, Tinta Negra, and director of the Black Barcelona Festival. Her work, including Blackface y otras vergüenzas, explores themes of racial diversity and Afrodescendant experiences.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to engage with leading voices on one of the most pressing cultural and historical topics of our time.

Free Admission | Open to the Public