Urban Rebellion in 20th Century Black America

In this talk, we will view Dr. Joyce-Zoe Farley's film, "In Absentia: The Lost Ones of America's/Motown's Revolution(s)" on urban insurrection through the events of Detroit 1967, and have an in-depth discussion about this mercurial period in American history. Detroit 1967 was a game-changer event for a myriad of reasons; the most important: it forced America to recognize racism in text (Kerner Commission Study) as the cause for the urban uprising.

Dr. Joyce-Zoe Farley is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Public History and African American Studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has dual appointments in the History department and the African American Studies Program. Additionally, Dr. Farley is the Internship Director for both the History Department and African American Studies Program. She teaches courses in public history, African American studies, race, media, and writing. Her research on urban insurrection of the 20th century, with the catalyst being Detroit 1967, uses oral history to tell a counternarrative to the many metanarratives about urban rebellion and the city, explicitly the troupes and ideas of Black agency, performance, trauma, resistance, and survival.

Before her second act in higher education, she was a media professional in several markets, including New York City, Phoenix, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. Dr. Farley has a Bachelors of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from The Hampton University, a Masters in Oral History from Columbia University, a Graduate Certificate in Visual Anthropology from the University of Leiden (Leiden, Netherlands), and a Doctorate in African American and African Studies from Michigan State University. Currently, she is working on funding for Part Two of “In Absentia” and a book on Detroit and July 1967. She is a member of Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism Honor Society, Golden Key Honour Society, the Oral History Association, and various film/documentary groups.