general
information
History
of the Department
Faculty Roster
Faculty Biographies
| History
of the Department |
The Department of African and African American Studies is a well established academic unit of the University
of Cincinnati McMicken College of Arts and Sciences. From Dr. William David
Smith's appointment as the first director in 1970 to the present day the department
has evolved into a comprehensive degree-granting department. Students enrolled
in the department as majors receive the Bachelor of Arts degree. In addition
to the major program the department has also developed a number of other important
academic and culturally-based programs. Additional information on these programs
is included within this web site.
As the department has continued
to grow, more and more students have enrolled in one of the many department
course offerings. We believe that this
increase in enrollment is due in part to the excellence of the teaching staff
and the programs, as well as the fact that the students recognize the value
of African and African American Studies for themselves and society.
As we move into the next century,
it will be extremely important for all of us, Black, white, Asian and others,
to understand the interplay of forces that help to structure the existence of
Black people.
The faculty and staff of the
Department of African and African American Studies are dedicated to analyzing many of these
forces and to functioning in such a way that students are able to receive the
best instruction possible. Moreover, since we also believe that learning is
a two-way process and that there is no substitute for "Brain Power,"
we are dedicated to the kinds of research exploration that will be beneficial
to each of you and the communities in which you live. We feel that the task
of bringing about needed changes in this society rests with those who are intellectually
prepared.
|
James Clingman
|
Adjunct Assistant Professor - Black Entrepreneurship |
| Anthony Davis |
Adjunct Assistant Professor - Black Drama |
| Esther Erkins, Ph.D. |
Adjunct Assistant Professor - Black Urban Poverty |
| Pamela Hoff, M.A. |
Adjunct Assistant Professor - African American Education |
William Jackson, M.A. 
|
Adjunct Assistant Professor - Black Film |
| Edward Prather, Ed.D.
|
Adjunct Assistant Professor - Blacks and Science |
|
Mrs. Josephine Wynne
|
Administrative Secretary |
| Tiana Johnson |
Student Assistant |
The academic and community
perspective of the Department of African and African American Studies is multidisciplinary
-- that is, faculty members are specialists in various disciplines and offer
their expertise in such ways that all of the major dimensions of the Black
experience are made subject to multidisciplinary scrutiny.
Professor John Brackett began a five-year term as Head of the Department on September 1, 2003. This is his second turn in that position. Dr. Brackett is an historian of Renaissance Italy, and Early
Modern Europe, with an emerging interest in the African Diaspora in Europe, 1450-1800. He has written on criminal justice and crime in late Renaissance Florence; on the regulation of prostitution; on violence in the countryside and in the city itself; and recently on Africans and Afro-Italians in Italy
during the Renaissance. Dr. Brackett will begin teaching a course on Topics in African World History on a regular basis. He is also interested in extending the Department into the African American community in Cincinnati. Professor Brackett has been employed at UC since 1987.
Patricia
Hill-Collins received her BA and PhD degrees from Brandeis University
and an MAT degree from Harvard University. While her specialties in sociology
include such diverse areas as sociology of knowledge, organizational theory,
social stratification and work and occupations, her research and scholarship
have dealt primarily with issues of gender, race and social class, specifically
relating to African American women. She is also a member of the Women's Studies
Program. She has published many articles in professional journals and edited
volumes. Her first book, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness
and the Politics of Empowerment, published in 1990, has won many awards.
Her second book, Race, Class and Gender: An Anthology (edited with
Margaret Andersen), originally published in 1992 with a second edition in 1995,
is widely used in undergraduate classrooms throughout the United States. Professor
Collins has taught at several institutions, held editorial positions with professional
journals, lectured widely in the United States, served in many capacities in
professional organizations and has acted as consultant for a number of businesses
and community organizations. She is currently completing her third book, tentatively
titled Fighting Words, to be published by the University of Minnesota
Press. In recognition of her numerous accomplishments, Professor Hill Collins
had been named a Charles Phelps Taft Professor, the first female in UC history
to hold this title.
Keith Griffler, PhD received his PhD from Ohio State University. His first book, What Price Alliance? Black
Radicals Confront White Labor, 1918-1938, traced the relationship between the African American liberation movement of the 1920s and 1930s and the labor movement and working class political organizations.
Keith recently published Front Line of Freedom, on the Underground Railroad in Cincinnati. He is co-authoring a book in African American history, as well as completing another title, a comparative
social and economic history of African American and African workers, covering from the turn of the 20th century until World War II. Dr. Griffler also has research and teaching interests in the African
Diaspora in the Carribean, and recently completed an article on the influence of Caribbean intellectuals on the "New Negro Movement" and the Harlem Renaissance.
Angelene Jamison-Hall, PhD, is a professor of African and African American Studies and women's studies at the University of Cincinnati, where she teaches various courses in African American literature and drama. Her scholarship
includes articles on areas of literature, specifically Black women's literature and is published in such collections as World Literature Criticism, 1500 to the Present, ed. James P. Draper, Gale Research, Inc.; Censored Books: Critical Viewpoints, eds. Burress, Karolides and Kean;
Critical Essays on Phillis Wheatley, ed. William Robinson; and Black Women Writers (1950-1980), ed. Mari Evans. Her work has also appeared in several academic journals such as Obsidian II: Black Literature in Review, Sage: A Scholarly Journal of Black Women, Western
Journal of Black Studies and Journal of Negro Education. Often called upon to talk about African American literature and other topics relevant to African American culture, Dr. Jamison-Hall contributed an article to the Urban League's publication, The State of Black Cincinnati,
titled "A Matter of Race: Leadership, African Americans and the Politics of the Corporate Community." Her passion is writing fiction and she has given numerous readings locally and nationally. From 1981-1987, she was chair of the Department of African and African American Studies, but chose to return
to teaching and writing at the end of her term. Currently, she is concentrating on scholarship in Black women's literature and writing fiction.
Joseph Takougang obtained a BA degree from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon (West Africa), as well as a MA and a PhD in African history from the University of Illinois, Chicago. He is currently an associate
professor of history in the department. His research has focused on political developments in colonial and post-colonial Africa, with particular interest on Cameroon. Dr. Takougang's articles have appeared in a number of refereed journals, including Africa Insight (1993), Journal of Third
World Studies (1993), TransAfrican Journal of History (1994), The Western Journal of Black Studies (1995) and Asian and African Studies (1995). An article on the Union des Populations due Cameroon is forthcoming (1996) in the Revue Francaise d'Histoire D'Outre-Mer.
He has co-authored a book on the transition to multiparty democracy in Cameroon.
K. John Kalubi PhD is Field Service Assistant Professor of African and African Diaspora literatures. He teaches various courses in African and African American intellectual ideas, literature and history. Dr. Kalubi
received his MA and PhD from the University of Cincinnati and a Magistere from the University of Paris-Sorbonne in French and Francophone cultures and literatures. He has teaching and research interests in the post-colonial African intellectual ideas and African Diaspora contemporary literary perspectives.
