Meet the Editor // PMLA

Meet editor and professor Brent Hayes Edwards

Professor Edwards is the Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. 

He has published widely on African diasporic literature and the interconnections between literature and music, and is the author of the award-winning The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism (Harvard UP, 2003), Epistrophies: Jazz and the Literary Imagination (Harvard UP, 2017), and the co-written autobiography of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Henry Threadgill, Easily Slip into Another World: A Life in Music (Penguin Random House, 2023).

Practical Information

On 20 and 21 May 2025, Edwards will be sharing his expertise with interested researchers during three different events at VUB in USQUARE VUB-ULB (Entrance via Building AC, 1050 Brussels, Belgium) All events are free of charge, but registration is required. Two of the events—the plenary discussion in the morning of 20 May and the lecture in the afternoon of 21 May—are open to the public. The workshop in the afternoon of 20 May is for preregistered VUB early career researchers only, with limited available spots (read more).

Tuesday 20 May (morning)

• 10:00-12:00:  Welcome, introduction and plenary discussion on academic publishing / Q&A with Brent Hayes Edwards
  • Venue: Usquare, room AC.0.01 (“Glass Hall”)
• 12:00-13:30: Walking networking lunch
  • Venue: Usquare, room AC.0.01 (“Glass Hall”)

Preregistration required

Tuesday 20 May (afternoon)

• 13:30-17:30: Workshop Brent Hayes Edwards for VUB early career researchers only
  • Venue: Usquare, OpenLab room A.1.23

Preregistration and approval of abstract required (Before 31 March 2025)

Wednesday 21 May (afternoon)

• 16:00-17:30: Lecture by Brent Hayes Edwards
  • Title: “Editing Diaspora: Translating Black Culture across Borders”
  • Venue: Usquare, room AC.0.01 (“Glass Hall”)
• 17:30-18:30: Reception
  • Venue: Usquare, room AC.0.01 (“Glass Hall”)

Preregistration required

Actions

• Register here until 13 May 2025

• Submit (until 31 March) a one page document to participate in the workshop on 20 May (read more)

  • A short biographical note (max. 100 words)
  • A short motivational statement briefly describing why you would like to participate in the workshop and/or what you expect to gain from the workshop (max. 150 words)
  • An abstract for an unpublished article that you would like feedback on from Brent Hayes Edwards (max. 300 words)

• Questions: gry.ulstein@vub.be