Decolonizing imagination: Narratives, memory and political possibility in the U.S. territories

An evening conversation featuring scholars, curators, and civic leaders from U.S. territories - places where residents are U.S. citizens or nationals but have long lacked full access to U.S. democracy. Each speaker will discuss the tools they draw on to shift political narratives in their community and expand perceptions of local political agency and possible political futures: curation and public history, literary publishing and civics education, constitutional drafting, and scholarship rooted in Africana studies and self-governance.

Together, their work illustrates how communities historically excluded from full democratic representation are re-authoring their own political stories — through creative, cultural, and civic practice rather than formal political structures alone.

Featuring:

• Imani Daniel - Executive director of the Virgin Islands Institute for Social Impact, Opulence, and Noetics (VIISION Inc.) and a delegate to the U.S. Virgin Islands Constitutional Convention, where she is helping draft a new constitution for the territory. She earned bachelor's degrees in political science and psychology from Johns Hopkins University.
• Victoria-Lola Leon Guerrero - Director of publishing at the University of Guam Press, where she is developing and launching a K–12 civics curriculum rooted in CHamoru and Micronesian history and culture. She earned an MFA in creative writing from Mills College and taught English composition and creative writing at the University of Guam for more than a decade before leading UOG Press's growth into a regional publishing house.
• Michael Lujan Bevacqua - Curator of the Guam Museum and founder of the first Chamorro Studies Program at the University of Guam. He earned a doctorate in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, San Diego. A CHamoru scholar and activist, his work examines the impact of colonization on Guam and theorizes possibilities for decolonization; in 2007, he testified before the United Nations Fourth Committee on Guam's political status.
• Hadiya Sewer - Co-founder of the St. John Heritage Collective (St. JanCo), a community land trust preserving the history and culture of St. John's people, and a founding member of the Virgin Islands Studies Collective. She earned a doctorate in Africana Studies from Brown University, and her scholarship and community work focuses on Caribbean history, identity, sovereignty, and self-determination.
  
  Through creative, cultural, and civic practice, these speakers illuminate how their communities are reclaiming political voice, preserving history, and imagining more self-determined futures.
  
  Sponsored by: Center for Democracy and Civic Empowerment, Trotter Multicultural Center, Political Science Department, Department of English Language and Literature, Center for Social Solutions, and Latina/o Studies Program.
  
  This event is part of the Ford School's Democracy Week programming. It is open to the U-M community and the public.