Explore history, arts, and culture in London and Paris with a focus on the achievements and experiences of the African diaspora. Discover how Black communities helped shape these European capitals down the centuries. Fine cuisine, special events, deluxe hotels, and fascinating discussions with artists and community leaders will round out your journey. Even if you have been to London and Paris before, this journey will illuminate these culturally rich cities from a variety of unexplored perspectives.
Herman Beavers has taught at Penn since 1989. Professor Beavers has a joint appointment in the Department of Africana Studies and teaches courses in African American and American literature, including courses on Southern Modernism, 20th Century African American Poetry, as well as "Trading Fours: The Literatures of Jazz," which is a requisite course in the Jazz and Popular Music minor. He also teaches a section of the introductory poetry workshop in the Creative Writing Program. Professor Beavers also teaches (with Prof. Suzana Berger) the Arts-Based Community Service course entitled, "August Wilson and Beyond," which brings Penn students together with West Philadelphia residents to read August Wilson's Century Cycle of plays. His most recent poems have appeared (or are about to appear) in MELUS, The Langston Hughes Colloquy, Versadelphia, Cleaver Magazine, and The American Arts Quarterly. He has recently published essays on August Wilson, Charles Johnson, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison. His latest book Geography and the Political Imaginary in the Novels of Toni Morrison was published in 2018. He also serves as an advisory editor at African American Review, Modern Fiction Studies, The Langston Hughes Review, and The Black Scholar. Professor Beavers hosted Penn alumni and friends on a African American expat tour of Paris in 2021.
David Wallace is a Londoner who was educated at York, Perugia and Cambridge (Ph.D. 1983); he became a US citizen in 2013. He taught at Stanford, UT Austin, and Minnesota before joining Penn as Judith Rodin Professor in 1996; he has since held visiting professorships at Melbourne, London, Princeton, and Hebrew University, Jerusalem (twice). He has served as President of the Medieval Academy of America and was awarded the Sir Israel Gollancz Prize by the British Academy. He has chaired both English and Romance Language Departments at Penn and has made documentary features for BBC Radio. He has directed the Penn English in London Program three times, most recently in 2023. His current research project, with Oxford University Press, is global in scope: see nationalepics.com, for an interactive website. With Herman Beavers, he organized and compered the creative event ‘Africana Dantes’ in 2021, marking the 700th anniversary of the death of the great Florentine, a vital figure for Black American writers and poets.
We encourage all Penn Alumni travelers to select the travel insurance that is right for you. If you are looking for a travel insurance provider, your tour operator will be able to offer some suggestions.
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