The 2018 annual meeting of the African Studies Association took place on November 29 to December 1, 2018 in Atlanta. This conference aims to bring together papers from a range of disciplines, on topics such as: contemporary interactions between North African black communities and recent West African immigrants; performances of blackness and Africanness in art and everyday life; competing imaginaries of race and blackness; Members of the SHADD project organized the panel discussion entitled “Biographies, Sources and African Diasporas: A Global Dynamic” on November 29, 2018. Henry B. Lovejoy acted as the chair of the panel discussion.