Humanities Research
Recent humanities research conducted by Department of Pan-African Studies faculty members includes six journal articles or book chapters.
Babacar M'Baye
M'Baye, Babacar. "The Pan-African and Puritan Dimensions of Phillis Wheatley's Poems and Letters." In New Essays on Phillis Wheatley. John C. Shields and Eric D. Lamore, eds. 271-293. Knoxville, TN.: U of Tennessee P, 2011.
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This essay explores the significance of selected poems and letters of Phillis Wheatley in the history of Pan-Africanism and Puritanism. The essay relates Wheatley's writings to the history of blacks in colonial New England in which the African poet made significant contributions.
M'Baye, Babacar. "The Myth of Post-Racialism: Hegemonic and Counterhegemonic Stories About Race and Racism in the United States." ACRAWSA: Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Journal 7 (2011): 2-25. (Online).
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Using both past and recent critical race theories, this article critically analyses the major differences between hegemonic stories which accept the myth of post-racialism in the United States and counterhegemonic stories which contest this myth.
M'Baye, Babacar. "Variant Sexualities and African Modernity in Joseph Gaye Ramaka's Karmen Geï." Black Camera. 2.2 (Spring 2011): 114-129.
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Drawing from the extant critical literature about the controversial Senegalese film Karmen Geï which has been written since the movie's debut in 2001 and its censure in the native country of the talented director Joseph Gaye Ramaka, this essay attempts to shed light on the picture by placing it in the broad context of the history of variant African sexualities and modernities.
M'Baye, Babacar and Oztan, Meltem. "Representations: Memoirs, Autobiographies, Biographies: West Africa" (5,938 Words). Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures. Joseph Suad and Therese Saliba, eds. 2012.
M'Baye, Babacar. "Rastafarianism." Cultural Sociology of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. Andrea L. Stanton, Peter J. Seybolt, Edward Ramsamy, and Carolyn M. Elliott, eds., 356-358. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (Encyclopedic Entry).
Wendy Wilson-Fall
Wilson, W. "Women Merchants and Slave Depots: St. Louis, Senegal and St. Mary's, Madagascar." In Slaving Paths: Rebuilding and Rethinking the Atlantic Worlds, edited by Ana Lucia Araujo, 273 -303. Cambria Press, 2011.
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Looking at historical data on coastal communities in slave trading ports in Senegal and Madagascar, this chapter combines the author's field data with historical studies. The text explores the little researched subject of agency among female slave traders and their role in creating creolized spaces and new understandings of women, power, and social marginalization.
Wilson, W. "Life Stories and Ancestor Debts: Creole Malagasy in Eighteenth Century Virginia." In Crossing Memories: Slavery and the African Diaspora, edited by Maria Candido, Paul Lovejoy and Ana Lucia Araujo, 147-182. Africa World Press, 2011.
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This text is based on several years' research among African American families claiming descent from Madagascar. The chapter describes diverse but inter-related methodological approaches, including face-to-face, telephone, and internet interviews, and introduces the topic of African American family oral narratives in the context of sentiments of belonging to a Madagascar past.
Amoaba Gooden
Gooden, A, & Hackett, R. "Methodology and the African Caribbean Subject." Southern Journal of Canadian Studies 4.2, (forthcoming).
Crawford, C., Flynn, C. & Gooden, A. "A Short Treatise on Constructing Black Canada." Southern Journal of Canadian Studies 4.2, (forthcoming).
Gooden, A. "Visual Representations of Feminine Beauty in the Black Press: 1915- 1950." The Journal of Pan African Studies 4.4 (2011): 80-95. In Special Issue: "Skin Bleaching and Global White Supremacy."
Social Science Research
Recent research activity in the social sciences conducted by Department of Pan-African Studies faculty members between June 2011 and March 2012 includes one grant and several forthcoming publications.
Wendy Wilson-Fall
Grant: Wilson-Fall, Wendy. Travel grant to visit Niger from Council of American Overseas Research Centers. (Summer 2011).
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Over the last year Wendy Wilson-Fall expanded her research on Fulani nomadic herder communities to include issues of land grabbing by forces external to the pastoral zone in Niger. While in Niger in July 2011 she interviewed five nomadic herders, two journalists and several NGO workers about issues of loss of pasturelands and the increasing presence of outsiders who are establishing themselves in the zone. This includes the presence of AL-Qaida agents in nearby Mali, and Tuareg returnees from Libya. Wilson-Fall is looking at levels of corporate behavior among different ethnic groups as a way of understanding how decisions may be made and actions taken in these altered social environments. This research will contribute to an essay she will complete this spring, for publication.
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Wilson-Fall is also working on digital environments that focus on Africa-related social networking, and the relation of the use of these environments to issues of identity, nationality, and culture among youth. Aspects of the results were presented at the African Studies Association national conference in November, 2011.
Amoaba Gooden
Gooden, Amoaba. "Methodology and the African Caribbean Subject," Southern Journal of Canadian Studies 4,2, (forthcoming).
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During 2011-2012 Dr. Amoaba Gooden continued her research on comparative analyses of negotiated space, identity, migration and working with African Caribbean subjects. She presented on her findings at The Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora conference in Pittsburgh in Fall 2011, and this data provides the basis for an upcoming article, "Methodology and the African Caribbean Subject," Southern Journal of Canadian Studies (Vol. 4: No. 2). Gooden's work uses interviews and personal narratives as primary data sources. Her focus is in the area of Health and Well-Being, looking at the psycho-social impact of oppression on people of African descent, the social determinants of health for women of African descent in Canada and the impact of drug and/or drug use on the sexual identity of African Americans. Her work on the project Personal is Political: Immigrant Women's Health Promotion (funded by the Canadian Institute of Health) and her continued appointment as an "associated member" of the Cluster "Diversities and Politics of Health" at the Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto have allowed continued work as an interdisciplinary scholar in Toronto, Ontario.
Gooden, Amoaba. "Making it Real: The impact of Crack Cocaine on the Sexual Identity of African Americans." (forthcoming).
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In terms of the impact of drug use, during the Fall Gooden also began the final phase of her research on Cocaine in the African American community that was carried out in collaboration with PAS students. This was Making it Real: The impact of Crack Cocaine on the Sexual Identity of African Americans which was funded by Research and Sponsored Programs here at Kent State. This student-faculty collaborative project evolved out of her class Gender and Sexuality in Africa and the African Diaspora.