14 Mar Dr. George Brandon to Deliver Plenary at ADRSA 2024
The ADRSA is pleased to announce Dr. George Brandon as the opening plenary speaker for our 2024 conference entitled The Power of Place: Home, ‘Foreign,’ and Belonging in Africana Religions to be held in New York City on April 19, 2024.
Dr. Brandon is a multidisciplinary cultural worker straddling the domains of art, science and spirituality through his work as a musician, anthropologist and an integrative sound and music practitioner. He is the author of The Dead Sell Memories: Santeria from Africa to the New World and an accomplished trombonist, having played with the Jazzmobile Workshop Orchestra and the Mighty Sparrow’s 25th Anniversary Tour among many others. He earned his PhD from Rutgers University (New Brunswick) and has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation.
From 1982 to 1989 Dr. Brandon taught in the African American Studies Department of the University of Maryland at Catonsville, then moved to the City University of New York’s Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education (now City University of New York Medical School) based at the City College of New York where he taught for 25 years before retiring as professor emeritus of Community Health and Social Medicine in 2014. During this period, he was an adjunct professor in CCNY’s anthropology department, chaired CCNY’s Black Studies Program for two years, and was a founding member of the Biomedical Engineering Department of CCNY’s Grove School of Engineering where he taught as an adjunct for 13 years. He has additionally lent his teaching talents to organizations including Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, El Museo del Barrio, the Interfaith Center of New York, the Tannenbaum Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution
Dr. Brandon has been certified as an integrative sound and music practitioner by the New York Open Center’s Sound (2015) and in the therapeutic use of Himalayan singing bowls by the Music Institute and the International Academy of Sound Healing (2016). His integrative sound and music practice focuses on chanting; composition, performance and improvisation; facilitating sound meditations; the healing power of storytelling; and the therapeutic use of Himalayan singing bowls, all within a framework rooted in Asian, African and African diasporic cultures.
We look forward to hearing from Dr. Brandon! Make plans to join us in New York on April 19th!
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