The Evolving Rhythms: African Diaspora Movement Practices in Canada Conference

 

Theme: Bodies of Knowledge, Movements of Change: ACB Movement Systems for Personal, Communal, and National Development

May 25 – 31, 2026
Attendance: Hybrid Delivery
Venue: Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Canada

Register for the Conference

 

Register for the Workshops

Building on the success of the 2025 conference, Evolving Rhythms 2026 continues to explore African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) movement systems as living epistemologies that shape our worlds. This edition moves beyond recognition to ask how these embodied traditions can be mobilized as both living theories and moving practices that drive personal transformation, community resilience, and national development. We seek to blur the lines between scholarship and practice, recognizing that ACB movement systems are simultaneously theoretical frameworks, cultural legacies, pedagogical models, and engines of change. They heal, archive, teach, and empower, bridging the academy, the studio, the street, and the sanctuary. This conference invites dancers, musicians, multi-disciplinary artist, sculptures, painters, choreographers, educators, cultural workers, policymakers, community members, and scholars to reimagine the relationship between embodiment, creativity, and development. Through papers, performances, workshops, and roundtables, we will examine how ACB movement practices sustain knowledge, identity, and innovation in a rapidly shifting world. In dialogue with the UNESCO Global Report on Cultural Policies: Culture – The Missing SDG (2025), Evolving Rhythms 2026 provides a platform for exploring how ACB movement systems engage global cultural frameworks while advancing localized visions of development, identity, and sustainability. The conference (in-person and virtual) will encompass an academic presentation format (Paper presentations, panel discussions, lecture-demonstrations) on May 25 & 26, and community workshops and performances (movement, drumming, choreography) from 27th through to 31st May.

Conveners:  Eric Awuah (PhD, Department of Anthropology) and Professor Marko Zivkovic (Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta)

 

Support and Partnerships

  • Department of Anthropology-University of Alberta
  • Canadian Center for African Immigrants Movements Research (CCAIMRS)
  • Apam Cultural Consult
  • Department of Drama
  • Canadian Center for Ethnomusicology
  • Mile Zero Dance Society

2026 Program

2026 Workshops

2026 Keynote Speakers

2026 Distinguished Guests and Speakers

2025 Conference