Faculty

Awam Amkpa,
Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies), Drama (Tisch School of the Arts); Director, Program in Africana Studies.
Ph.D. 1993 (drama), Bristol (England); M.A. 1987 (drama), Ahmadu Bello (Nigeria); B.A. 1982 (dramatic arts), Obafemi Awolwo (Nigeria).
Theatre of the black Atlantic; performance traditions from Africa; modern British drama.

Renée Blake,
Associate Professor, Linguistics, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
Ph.D. 1997 (linguistics), M.A. 1993 (linguistics), B.S., 1987 (biology), Stanford.
Urban sociolinguistics; African American vernacular English; language and culture in the Caribbean.

J. Michael Dash,
Professor, French, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
Ph.D. 1973, B.A. 1969 (modern languages), West Indies (Jamaica).
Francophone Caribbean literature; comparative Caribbean literature; translation from French to English.

Ed Guerrero,
Associate Professor, Cinema Studies (Tisch School of the Arts), Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
Ph.D. 1989 (ethnic studies), California (Berkeley); M.F.A. 1972 (filmmaking), San Francisco Art Institute; B.A. 1972 (English), San Francisco State.
Black film criticism, history, and theory; cinematic aesthetics of “difference”; critical economies of emergent cinemas; fantastic otherness in sci-fi and horror.

Robert Hinton,
Clinical Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
Ph.D. 1993 Yale; BA. 1973, District of Columbia.
Agricultural labor in the African Atlantic.

Jennifer Morgan,
Associate Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies), History.
Ph.D. 1995 (history), Duke; B.A. 1986, Oberlin College.
Early African American history; comparative slavery; histories of racial ideology.

Michael Ralph,
Assistant Professor, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
Ph.D. 2006 (anthropology), University of Chicago; M.A. 2002 (anthropology), University of Chicago; B.A. 2000 Morris Brown College.

Deborah Willis,
Professor, Photography and Imaging (Tisch School of the Arts), Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
Ph.D. 2002, George Mason; M.A. 1986, CUNY; M.F.A. 1980, Pratt Institute; B.F.A 1975, Philadelphia College of Art.
Art history; museum studies; photography; African American photography and visual culture.

Affiliated Faculty

Gerard L. Aching, Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures.
Ph.D. 1991 (Romance studies), Cornell; B.A. 1982 (political science), California (Berkeley).
Nineteenth- and 20th-century Caribbean literatures and intellectual history; theories of modernism and modernity in Latin America; slavery and philosophy; visual regimes and politics in Caribbean popular cultures.

Thomas O. Beidelman, Professor, Anthropology.
D.Phil. 1961, M.A. 1963,Oxford, M.A. 1956; B.A. 1953, Illinois.
Social anthropology; religion; colonial history; oral literature; Africa and ancient Greece.

Derrick Bell, Visiting Professor, Law (School of Law).
LL.B. 1957, Pittsburgh ; B.A. (1952), Duquesne.
Constitutional law; current constitutional issues.

Kamau Brathwaite, Professor, Comparative Literature, History.
D.Phil. 1968, Sussex; B.A. 1953, Cambridge.
Caribbean literature, culture, and society.

Paulette Caldwell, Professor, Law (School of Law).
J.D. 1969, B.S. 1966, Howard.
Critical race theory; employment discrimination law; race and gender in American law and culture.

Arlene Dávila, Professor, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Analysis (American Studies)
Ph.D. 1996 (cultural anthropology), CUNY; M.A. 1990 (anthropology and museum studies), New York; B.A. 1987 (anthropology), Tufts.
Race and ethnicity; nationalism; media studies; political economy, globalization; the politics of museum and visual representation; urban studies; consumption; Latinos in the U.S.

David Dent, Associate Professor, Journalism.
M.S. 1982 (journalism), Columbia; B.A. 1981 (political science), Morehouse College.
African American culture, education, race, and the media; television reporting.

Manthia Diawara, Professor, Comparative Literature; Director, Institute of African American Affairs.
Ph.D. 1985 (comparative literature), Indiana; M.A. 1978 (literature), B.A. 1976 (literature), American.
Black American film; literary and cultural studies; black film in Africa and Europe.

Michael D. Dinwiddie, Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, Social and Cultural Analysis (Africana Studies).
M.F.A. 1983, B.A. 1980, New York.
Cultural studies; African American theatre history; dramatic writing; filmmaking; ragtime music.

Troy Duster, Professor, Sociology; Silver Professor.
Ph.D. 1962, Northwestern; M.A. 1959, California (Los Angeles); B.A. 1957, Northwestern.
Sociology of science; sociology of knowledge; deviance and control; sociology of law; race and ethnicity; policy; deviance.

Jason King, Assistant Professor, Recorded Music, Artistic Director, Recorded Music.
B.F.A., The New School, M.A., Ph.D., New York University

William Easterly, Professor, Economics.
Ph.D. 1985 (economics), Massachusetts Institute of Technology; B.A. 1979 (economics), Bowling Green State.
Economic development; economic growth; African development; ethnic conflict; American race relations; foreign aid; international macroeconomics.

Ada Ferrer, Associate Professor, History.
Ph.D. 1995, Michigan; M.A. 1988, Texas (Austin); B.A. 1984, Vassar College.
Latin America and the Caribbean; Cuba; nationalism and independence.

Michael Gomez, Professor, History, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies.
Ph.D. 1985 (African history), M.A. 1982 (African history), B.A. 1981 (U.S. history), Chicago.
African diaspora; Islam in West Africa; African American social movements; Islam in the Americas; Islamic Iberia; slavery, colonialism, liberation.

Phillip Brian Harper, Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Literature; Professor, English, Social and Cultural Analysis (American Studies); Chair, Department of Social and Cultural Analysis. Ph.D. 1988 (English), M.A. 1986, M.F.A. 1985 (creative writing), Cornell; B.A. 1981 (creative writing/literature), Michigan.
Modern and contemporary U.S. literary and cultural studies; African-American literature and culture; gender and sexuality studies.

Martha Hodes, Associate Professor, History.
Ph.D. 1991 (history), M.A. 1987 (history), Princeton; M.A. 1984 (religion), Harvard; B.A. 1980 (religion and political theory), Bowdoin College.
Nineteenth-century United States; transnational race; Civil War era.

Richard Hull, Professor, History.
Ph.D. 1968, M.A. 1965 (African studies), M.A. 1954 (European history), Columbia.
Democratization in Africa; origins of segregation in South Africa.

Barbara Krauthamer, Assistant Professor, History.
Ph.D. 1999, M.A. 1996, Princeton; M.A. 1994, Washington; B.A. 1989, Dartmouth College
African American; U.S. South and borderlands; U.S. women.

Paule Marshall, Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of Literature and Culture; Professor, English.
B.A. 1953, Brooklyn College (CUNY).
Creative writing.

Elizabeth McHenry, Associate Professor, English. Ph.D. 1993 (English), Stanford; B.A. 1987 (English), Columbia.
African-American literature, culture, and intellectual history; 19th- and 20th-century United States literature; history of the book.

Pamela Newkirk, Associate Professor, Journalism.
M.A. (journalism), Columbia; B.A. 1983 (journalism), New York.
Urban issues; politics; history of minorities in the media.

Yaw Nyarko, Professor, Economics.
Ph.D. 1986 (economics), M.A. 1985 (economics), Cornell; B.A. 1982 (economics and mathematics), Ghana.
Game theory; human capital; economic growth

Jeffrey Sammons, Professor, History.
Ph.D. 1982 (history), North Carolina (Chapel Hill); M.A. 1974 (history), Tufts; B.A. 1971 (history), Rutgers.
U.S. social and cultural history with research and teaching interests in African-American history, military history, black autobiography, film history, and sports history.

Mary Schmidt-Campbell, Professor, Art and Public Policy; Chair, Department of Art and Public Policy; Dean, Tisch School of the Arts.
Ph.D. (humanities), M.A. (history), Syracus; B.A. (English), Swarthmore College.

John Singler, Professor, Linguistics; Chair, Department of Linguistics.
Ph.D. 1984 (linguistics), M.A. 1979 (linguistics), California (Los Angeles); M.A. 1976 (African studies), London; B.A. 1969 (history), Dartmouth College.
Sociolinguistics; pidgins and creoles; phonology.

Robert P. Stam, Professor, Cinema Studies (Tisch School of the Arts).
Ph.D. 1976 (comparative literature), California (Berkeley); M.A. 1966 (English literature), Indiana; Studied at Oxford, the Sorbonne, and Paris VIII (Vincennes).
Third World film; U.S. independent film; semiotics.

Clyde Taylor, Professor, Gallatin School of Individualized Study.
Ph.D. 1968, Wayne State; M.A. 1959, B.A. 1953, Howard.
Politics of representation; vernacular modernisms; cinema and society; African American and African literature; cultural symbolism; African diaspora film and literature; cultural criticism; modernism and aesthetics.

Leonard Wantchekon, Professor, Politics.
Ph.D. 1995 (economics), Northwestern; M.A. 1992 (economics), British Columbia; Baccalauréat série C 1977 (mathematics and physics), Benin (Nigeria).
Political economy, development; applied game theory; comparative politics; political methodology.