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The Cheikh Anta Diop Int'l Conference was initiated by Molefi K. Asante to coincide with the introduction of the first doctoral program in African American Studies at Temple University. The conference was called in October, 1988, and featured many of the new students who had enrolled in the Department of African American Studies at Temple. The Cheikh Anta Diop Conference had three objectives: 1) introduction of the new discipline, 2) professional and collegial networking among students and faculty in Black Studies, and 3) advancement of disciplinary knowledge around the Afrocentric idea. Named for the brilliant Senegalese scholar, Cheikh Anta Diop, who single-handedly revised the text on African antiquity by writing several books exposing the methods Europeans had employed to falsify African history, the conference assumed a leadership role in the projection of Afrocentric consciousness. From the beginning, the CAD Conference was defined as an instrument where space for intellectual growth could be created and sustained in an environment of free discourse. Diop had been the inspiration for the conference because, in his two important works translated into English—The African Origin of Civilization and Civilization or Barbarism—he had demonstrated the advantages of sound scholarship over shoddy work. His research methods were multidimensional and his expertise was sharp, always projecting a measure of African intellectual integrity in pursuit of truth. The conference has attracted participants from Africa, Asia, North, South America, Europe and Australia. A committee evaluates papers presented in abstract form and selects the best ones for presentation at the conference. Because it is always the intention of the conference to have the papers published, papers selected for the conference must be written out in full. By 2004 there had been sixteen conferences, all held in Philadelphia. The Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference was affiliated with Temple University until 1996, when it became affiliated with the Association for Kemetic Nubian Heritage (ANKH). ANKH underwrites the conference and is responsible for the organization, personnel, and programming. The papers area usually published in full form in the Journal of Black Studies or as abstracts by ANKH in the conference program booklet. Considered by professionals in the field of Black Studies as one of the key conferences each year, the Cheikh Anta Diop International Conference has achieved the singular status of most preferred professional conference in African American Studies. -Garvey Lundy (Encyclopedia of Black Studies) |
