Stranger in the Village: Hamda Yusuf on the Language and Politics of Travel  

Submitted by Michael Neininger on
UW Alumna Hamda Yusuf

The Department of Germanics, the Simpson Center, African Studies and the Center for Global Studies sponsored a talk and performance by 2016 alumna Hamda Yusuf. Taking the title from one of James Baldwin’s essays in his collection “Notes of a Native Son”, Hamda Yusuf spoke before a full audience about her experiences traveling in Europe as a black Muslim woman, and the feeling of being a ‘stranger in the village’. In her talk, she touched on the power of inter-cultural connections and the importance of diversity in language learning and travel. Yusuf is also a spoken word poet who often writes about identity in her poetry. To conclude the evening, she gave a powerful performance of one of her poems.

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