From Brazil to Germany, New York to Ghana, Dialogues of Dispersal examines the intersections of gender and sexuality within Afro-diasporic communities. This interdisciplinary volume covers a broad chronological sweep, ranging from eighteenth-century slavery to twentieth-century social movements. The contributors provide innovative analyses of religion, popular culture, identity, maternalism, sartorial practices, and transnational networks. They interrogate colour and class issues, highlight the dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, and explore the politics of narration, performance and recognition.

Dialogues of Dispersal marks a distinct departure from previous work in African Diaspora studies in its sustained analysis of how gender and sexuality complicate circuits of exchange. In the process, the volume underscores how diasporas are at once overlapping spheres of human experience and constructed sites of connection and engagement.

Sandra Gunning is Associate Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of Race, Rape and Lynching: The Red Record of American Literature (1996) and co-editor of 'The Marrow of Tradition' (2002).

Tera W. Hunter is Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University. She is the author of To 'Joy My Freedom Southern Black Women's Lives and Labors After the Civil War (1997) and co-editor of African American Urban Studies: Perspectives from the Colonial Period to the Present (2004).

Michele Mitchell is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of The Nation Reproduced: African Americans and the Politics of Racial Destiny after Reconstruction (2004).