Dr. Omari Weekes (Assistant Professor of Engljsh, CUNY) is one of the most exciting emerging scholars currently working at the intersection of Black studies and literary criticism. Weekes’ work focuses on the affective dimensions of spiritual experience for people of African descent as well as the desires that sustain and create Black communities, reading the way in which those same longings and contradictions show up in African-American literature of the mid-to-late 20th century. A public-facing writer as well as a scholar, Weekes has published in The New York Times, The Nation, n+1, and Bookforum, and elsewhere.
Dr. Omari Weekes is this year's keynote speaker for the Black Studies @UCI Conference (2024). We hope you will join us on Thursday, April 25th at 4:00 PM in Humanities Gateway 1010. The Black Studies @ UCI Conference is free and open to the public.