In March 2021, many news outlets from Le Monde to the New York Times reported on a historic moment: Pap Ndiaye, a French historian specializing in African American and Afro-French history, had been appointed director of the National Museum of the History of Immigration in Paris. Built in 1931 to celebrate French colonialism, the museum has a troubled historical identity which Ndiaye seeks to expose and transform. 

Described as a “quiet revolutionary,” Ndiaye’s appointment as director followed an immensely successful transatlantic academic career. Born and raised in Paris, he first encountered African American history at the University of Virginia, where he completed his master’s in history. His initial research led him to pioneer a comparative historical approach, researching the African diaspora in France and America in order to conceive of a transnational philosophy of race as its intersectionality. An authority on questions of race and post-colonialism, Ndiaye frequently consults on various cultural projects from the Musée d’Orsay’s exhibit “Black Models” to the Opéra Garnier’s diversity report. The author of many books, including La Condition noire and Les Noirs américains:en marche pour l’égalité, Ndiaye has also written for Le Monde and Libération. Ndiaye will be in conversation with writer Jake Lamar. 

https://americanlibraryinparis.org/event/ndiaye22/