Join the Undisciplined Podcast hosts\, Dr. Caree Banton and Dr. Karynecia Conner for an interview with Arkansas Inte rnational Writer-at-Risk\, Uchenna Awoke for a discussion of his latest no vel\, "The Liquid Eye of a Moon". This interview will be a live recording for the KUAF podcast\, Undisciplined. \;
\nUchenna Awoke lives a nd writes in Nsukka\, Nigeria. His short stories have appeared in \;Tr ansition\, \;Elsewhere Lit\, \;Trestle Ties\, \;Oyster River P ages\, \;The Evergreen Review\, and other places. He received fellowsh ips from MacDowell and the Vermont Studio Center in 2017 and 2019 respecti vely. He is an Artist Protection Fund Fellow and the Arkansas Internationa l Writer-at-Risk Residency Fellow\, currently living in Fayetteville\, Ark ansas. He is also a 2019 Graywolf Africa Prize finalist. "The Liquid Eye o f a Moon" is his debut novel.
\nAbout "The Liquid Eye of a M
oon":
A Nigerian \;Catcher in the Rye\, Uchenna Awoke&rs
quo\;s masterful debut breaks the silence about a hidden and dangerous con
temporary caste system.
Fifteen-year-old Dimkpa dreams of the day his father will be made village head. He will return to school and maybe e ven go on to university\; his mother will no longer have to break her back foraging wild food to sell at market\; they will have the money to build a fine tomb for his aunt Okike\; and his family&rsquo\;s status as \;o hu ma\, the lowest Igbo caste\, won&rsquo\;t matter anymore. But when his father is passed over for a younger man\, breaking tradition\, Dimkpa real izes that he must make his own fate.
\nJourneying from his small vil lage in rural Nigeria\, to Lagos\, Awka\, and home again\, Dimkpa learns t hat no money is easy money\, that superstition runs deep\, that knowledge is power\, and that sometimes it is better to live in the present than to always be chasing a future just out of reach.
\n"The Liquid Eye of a Moon" is by turns hilarious and poignant\, capturing all the messiness of adolescence\, and the difficulty of making your own way in a world that s eeks to oppress you.
\nAbout Dr. Caree Banton:
Dr. Caree Banton is the Chair of the History Department\, Associate Profe
ssor of African Diaspora History\, and the former Director of the African
and African American Studies Program at the University of Arkansas. Dr. Ba
nton earned a BPA in Public Administration and a BA in History from Grambl
ing State University in 2005. She received an MA in Development Studies fr
om the University of Ghana in July 2012 and completed her Ph.D. at Vanderb
ilt University in June 2013. \; Much of her work focuses on teaching a
nd learning with an emphasis on strong written and verbal communication sk
ills\, problem-solving around issues of diversity\, justice\, and equity\,
and cultivating empathetic listening abilities in adults. Her academic re
search focuses on movements toward freedom\, particularly abolition\, eman
cipation\, and colonization through which she explores ideas of citizenshi
p\, nationhood\, and race. Her work has been supported by the Rotary Ambas
sadorial Scholarship\, the Andrew Mellon Foundation Fellowship\, the Lapid
us Center Fellowship at the Schomburg Center\, the Nancy Weiss Malkiel Fel
lowship\, and the National Endowment for the Humanities grant. Dr. Banton
is a member of the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy and has been na
med a Master Teacher in Fulbright College. Her book\, "More Auspicious Sho
res: Barbadian Migration to Liberia\, Blackness\, and the Making of the Af
rican Republic"\, was published by Cambridge University Press in May 2019.
\;Her forthcoming manuscript\, &ldquo\;The Many Archives of the Black
Republic: Liberian Loss\, and Memory Across its Diaspora&rdquo\; is curre
ntly in progress.
About Dr. Karynecia Conner:
Dr. Karynecia (Kary-knee-see-yah) Elizabeth Conner is a teaching assista
nt professor of social studies at the University of Arkansas\, jointly app
ointed to Curriculum and Instruction and African and African American Stud
ies. She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Baylor Univ
ersity in August 2023\, her M.Ed. from the University of Texas at Austin\,
and her B.A. in Political Science with an emphasis on policy analysis fro
m the University of Houston in 2014. She has taught 6-12 youth social stud
ies domestically and abroad. Her perspectives of history filter through he
r work as a teacher educator. Her research uses discourse and oral history
methodologies to explore the intersection between school reform and third
-space curriculum to inform her curriculum and teaching design. \;Kary
necia's work on the Undisciplined podcast aims to make space for everyone&
nbsp\;to discuss education. \;
\;
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