Research interests:Gender, urbanization, labor, and tourism in sub-Saharan Africa. My dissertation will examine gendered patterns of migration and labor in Livingstone, Zambia around Victoria Falls. I am interested in understanding how the development of the tourist industry in this region over the past century affected employment patterns of male and female workers, and how changing labor situations impacted familial and community networks. The project will consider the role of both internal and external economic, political, and social pressures on the creation and evolution of tourism in Livingstone. A major theme of the project is examining and interpreting the development of formal and informal employment opportunities, and the significance of gender in this development. Honors and fellowships:
Publications, papers:
Teaching experience: HIST 285/AFS 389 Gender and the Colonial Experience in Africa (Fall 2004)  Ashley T. Brenner (B.A. History, summa cum laude, B.A. Anthropology, magna cum laude, University of California, Irvine, 2002) Ph.D. Program, HistoryResearch Interests:I am interested in comparing the concept of the frontier across time and space, particularly with respect to gender relations. The frontier which most fascinates me is the eighteenth century District of Swellendam in South Africa. I am interested in interactions between burghers, poor whites, Khoisan, Xhosa, and slaves and how the possibilities for interaction offer ways of reconceptualizing frontier history different from the body of theory on this topic. I am particularly intrigued by the ways these categories of race and class intersect with gender, an element that is greatly under-theorized in the history of South Africa. Looking at this particular frontier affords an especially important view of gender dynamics in South Africa which can contribute more broadly to studies of power and coercion and what occurs in situations of unequal gender ratios. | ||||
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Background: Prior to beginning graduate studies at Emory, Martha worked with the international emergency humanitarian organization, Médecins sans Frontières, between 1993 and 2002. Specializing in implementing humanitarian projects in conflict zones, she has worked in a number of volatile contexts (including Somalia, Bosnia-I-Herzegovina, Timor, etc.) with specific expertise in the Southern Sudanese and Sierra Leonean/Liberian conflicts | |||
| Mask with Head Cloth, Ngady Mwaash Zaïre, Kuba, Bushoong, 19th century A.D. Wood, fiber, shells, cloth, beads, skin, pigment, 17 3/8 x 11 1/2 x 7 in. (44 x 29 x 18 cm). 1994.4.93(Carlos Museum African Collection) | While the consequences of conflict and its' transformative effects are clearly destructive, they are also constructive, providing resources and creating opportunities that are unavailable during times of stability. In highly volatile and unequal situations such as Sierra Leone's war and its aftermath, some survive and others thrive, while many fail. What accounts for these different outcomes? | |||
The creation of amputees deeply shocked
both the Sierra Leonean and international community, prompting significant
international interventions across sectors, specifically aimed at assisting
the amputees. Were these interventions useful, and in what ways? Conversely,
how were indigenous institutions useful in the amputees' struggle to survive
war and reconciliation? When do different assets become useful in these
settings, and with what results? How do these choices influence future
decisions on coping strategies, and impact the continuous process of constructing
self, family and community? Presentations and Lectures:
Publications:
Teaching Experience:
Fellowships and Grants
Selected Publications
Selected Presentations
Background: My M.A. thesis, "Kingship Reveals Kinship," compared artworks by two South African artists: one a performance piece by Samson Mudzunga from rural Venda in the Northern Province, and the other a "drawing for projection" by internationally-acclaimed artist/filmmaker William Kentridge. Both pieces contain descriptions of the enthroning and dethroning of "father figures:" Mudzunga's through the usurption of Venda symbols of kingship and Kentridge with his adaptation of the biblical story of the fall of King Belshazzar. Entering into the conversation of the history of psychoanalysis in an "African" setting, I used psychoanalysis as both an analytical method and as a historical artifact in South Africa. I ultimately posed the question of the possibility of a "universal" sensibility for the artist, and indeed the art historian, in a global setting. Research interests: My current research interests extend the questions of international art criticism into the realm of overtly political art. I will study the upcoming Luanda Triennial in Angola in 2006, where artist and founder Fernando Alvim seeks to anchor an international art exhibition squarely into the setting of Angola. His project is dedicated to addressing the current state (psychological and political) of Angola after two decades of continuous violence. While there, I will research the scantly documented body of socialist realist art produced in the seventies. My hope is that I may come to a fruitful comparison between two transitional periods for Angola, witnessed in part by international ties manifest through aesthetic choices in Angola's socialist period and the "neo- liberal" international ties of today.
Research Interests:Militarization and gender identity construction in East and Central Africa. Based on one year of fieldwork in Uganda, my dissertation examines the extent to which Idi Amin's military state strategically manipulated the meanings of ideal womanhood, and in turn, how Baganda women negotiated this changing politico-cultural milieu. As "mothers of the nation," women were expected to embody tradition while rejecting the accoutrements of modernity. For modern African women --particularly the Baganda who have a rich history of autonomy and cosmopolitanism-- these decrees signaled a definite shift in gendered expectations. Toward a better understanding of this historical moment, I examine how Baganda womanhood was constructed in political, ideological, and cultural discourses to determine the influence of Amin's initiatives and decrees on women. onors, Achievements and Awards:
Conference Presentations:
Teaching Experience:
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Daniel B. Domingues da Silva (B.A. History, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, 2004) Ph.D. program, Department of History
Research interests: African slavery and the Atlantic slave trade. Daniel is currently conducting research on the processes of enslavement in the interior of Angola, in West-Central Africa, during the rise of industrial capitalism in Europe. Angola was a major slave exporter in the Atlantic slave trade. In the nineteenth century, the region exported nearly half of all slaves sailing across the ocean to the New World. Daniel seeks to uncover the intersections between slavery in Angola and the Atlantic slave trade. His research employs basically two types of resources: the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database (hosted at Emory University) and registers of slaves and liberated captives made by Portuguese colonial officials in Angola and by British abolitionist forces settled around the Atlantic basin. Daniel aims to reconstruct the slave frontiers of Angola and assess how Africans selected those who were sold into the Atlantic slave trade and those who remained captives in Africa. In sum, he hopes to explore the nature of African slavery. |
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View from the fort of St. Michael of the bay of Luanda, Angola |
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Below are the profiles of some of the graduate students, current or alumni, who have been recently affiliated with the Institute.
Honors and Fellowships
- Mellon Fellowship for Dissertation Research in Original Sources - Council for Library and Information Resources, 2007
- Research Award - Luso-American Foundation for the Development of Portugal, 2006
- Summer Funding for Pre-dissertation Research: Emory University History Department; Emory University Fund for International Graduate Research; Latin-American and Caribbean Studies Institute, 2006
- Summer Funding for Pre-dissertation Research: Emory University History Department; Emory University Fund for International Graduate Research, 2005
- Summer Language Training Grant: Emory University History Department; Institute of African Studies, 2005
- Emory University Graduate Fellowship, 2004
Teaching Experience
- Teaching Assistant for "Comparative Slavery in the New World" with Dr. David Eltis. Fall, 2005.
Papers and Presentations
- Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, "Africans in Transit: from the Angolan to the Brazilian Hinterland," paper presented at the Allen Morris Conference on Florida and the Atlantic World, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, February 24th, 2006.
- Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, "The Slave Trade to and from Pernambuco, 1576-1851: a New Profile," paper presented at the workshop on the Transatlantic Slave Trade: New Data and New Interpretation, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, December, 2004.
- Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, Manolo Florentino and Alexandre V. Ribeiro, "Aspectos Comparativos do Tráfico de Africanos para o Brasil (Séculos XVIII e XIX)," Afro-Ásia, vol. 31, (2004), pp. 83-126.
- Daniel B. Domingues da Silva, "O Tráfico de São Tomé e Príncipe, 1799 a 1811: para o estudo de rotas negreiras subsidiárias ao comércio transatlântico de escravos," Estudos de História: Revista do Programa de Pós-Graduação em História, Franca-UNESP, (2002), vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 35-51.
Olubukola
Gbadegesin (B.A. cum laude, December 2002, Cornell University)
PhD Program, Art History
Research Interests: Transnational Artists and the evolution of Modern Art in Nigeria. I am currently finishing my M.A. paper which traces parallels between the careers of Aina Onabolu, Nigeria's first modern artist, and Leo Frobenius, charismatic German anthropologist. Both of these historical figures were active in the first decades of the twentieth century and significantly influenced the study and evolution of artistic expression in British Nigeria. Frobenius' anthropological school and nationalist allegiance were inspired by Germany's desire for global political and economic involvement. And similarly, Onabolu's position was deeply entwined with the political philosophies of Nigeria's influential indigenous population. This paper argues that the different (and often opposing) views of each figure were suggestive of the larger and more contentious 'rivalry' between England and Germany, colonization and autonomy.
Honors and Fellowships:
- Mellon Fellowship, Carlos Museum of Art (Emory University), 2004
- Cornell Presidential Research Scholar (Cornell University), 1999-2003
Teaching Experience:
- Teaching Assistant (for Dorothy Fletcher) Introduction to Art History (ARTHIST101&102). Fall 2004 & Spring 2005
Jessica
Gerschultz (B.A. in Art History, James Madison University, 1998;
M.A. in Arts Education ( with K-12 Teaching
Licensure) , University of New Mexico, 2004) PhD Program, Art History
Research Interests: Intersection of African and Islamic art forms, with a focus on North African textiles and in particular, the transmission of biskra design and technique to Djerba Island off the coast of Tunisia. In the summer of 2006,Jessica will travel to Tunisia to begin research on the origins of the biskra, the most prestigious cloth woven on Djerba Island, which may have arrived through trade with Libya. She is also interested in artists' responses to the role played by cultural brokerage in the contemporary art scenes of Nairobi and Dakar, where the Ford Foundation and other cultural entities exert a powerful influence on artistic endeavors. She researched this topic during previous trips to Dakar in 2005 and Nairobi in 2003 and 2001, and wrote a preliminary paper, Reflection, Rejection, and In/Dependence: Ré_flex_if and Kuona Trust.
Honors and Fellowships:
- Office of Graduate Studies 3% Scholarship, The University of New Mexico (2003-2004)
Papers Presentations:
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Healing Through Art: A Study of Cooperative Art Education in Kenya, The National Art Education Association Annual Conference, 2005, Boston, MA
Teaching and Work Experience:
- Teaching Assistant for Art History 101 and 102, Emory University, Atlanta, GA (2005-2006)
- 9th grade Art and German TeacherRio Rancho Mid-High School, Rio Rancho,NM (2004-2005)
- Member of the Albuquerque Weavers Guild, Las Arañas, Albuquerque, NM (2004-2005)
- Art Education/ Community Outreach Project CoordinatorRahimtulla, Museum of Modern Art, Nairobi, Kenya (2003)
- Weaving Workshop Instructor, The Albuquerque Children's Museum, Albuquerque, NM (2002)
- Gallery Manager and Research Correspondent, Gallery Watatu, Nairobi, Kenya (1998-1999)
- Research Intern, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA (1996)
Kenneth
Maes (B.A., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2002, summa
cum laude) Ph.D. program, Biological Anthropology
Research Interests: I focus on prehistoric and contemporary genetic and health outcomes of demographic, political and cultural change in northeast and west Africa. With training in bioarchaeology and human molecular genetics, I will examine mitochondrial genetic and functional variation in northeast Africa and adjacent regions, in order to understand how human mitochondrial adaptation and demographic change have together shaped contemporary patterns of mitochondria-associated complex phenotypes. Some of the phenotypes that I am interested in are neurodegenerative diseases, metabolic syndrome, and general longevity. A major ethical dilemma that my research faces is how to justify genetic sampling among people in poor economic conditions, who may not benefit from the research as much as the investigators do. I hope to find ways to foster true collaborations among Western research institutions and the nations and people who often provide anthropological data, and I welcome discussion of this issue with others.
Background: I have served as director of human osteological research for a UCSD/Jordan Department of Antiquities archaeological field school in southern Jordan , as well as assistant director of osteological research for an archaeological investigation of Inca origins in the Cusco Valley, Peru. I spent 2000-2001 studying West African archaeology at the University of Ghana, Legon. This summer, I will working in Addis Ababa, with Dr. Yigeremu Abebe, to investigate social and behavioral correlates of HIV/AIDS infection patterns in Ethiopia. I will also be conducting my dissertation fieldwork in southwest Ethiopia during part of 2006 and again in 2007.
While at Emory, I also focus on historical and contemporary interactions of 'race,' racism, and health -- in anthropology, epidemiology, and biomedicine, as well as in day-to-day Emory life, through the Transforming Communtity Project. This project aims to engage faculty, staff, and students in unearthing and synthesizing Emory's history in regards to race, and to use this knowledge to take positive action. With my friends in the Institute of African Studies, I have helped to organize yearly campus events, such as "Diamonds, Oil and Africa: The Violents Costs of Consumption" (2004) and our latest music and film festival, "Ngoma Afrika: Music is the Weapon" (2006).
Fellowships:
- Emory Fund for International Graduate Research, Summer Research Fellow (2006)
- Emory AIDS International Training and Research Program, Summer Research Fellow (2006)
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow (2004-2007)
Laboratory Training:
- Junior Specialist, Mitochondrial and Molecular Medicine and Genetics (MAMMAG), University of California, Irvine. PI: Dr. Douglas Wallace (2005)
- Summer Intern, Paleo-DNA Laboratories, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada(2005)
Teaching Experience:
- Teaching Associate, Anthropology 312, Human Skeletal Biology ( Spring 2006)
- Teaching Assistant, Anthropology 190, Reading the Bones of the Ancient Dead (Freshman Seminar)( Fall 2005)
- Teaching Assistant, Anthropology 312, Human Skeletal Biology ( Spring 2005)
- Teaching Assistant, Anthropology 201, Introduction to Biological Anthropology (Fall 2004)
Publications:
- In press . "Emerging Malaria and Trypanosomiasis in West African Societies from the Neolithic to the Present." In Emerging Disease in the Age of Globalization. George J. Armelagos and Daryl White, eds. SAS Symposium. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. (2006)
- Armelagos, George J. and Kenneth C. Maes. Comment on Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel and Stephan Naji's "American Cemeteries Data Corroborate a Neolithic Demographic Transition on a World-Wide Scale." Current Anthropology. 47. (2006)
- Armelagos, George J. and Kenneth C. Maes. Reply to Fatimah Jackson's Response to George Armelagos' Commentary on the Slavery Hypertension Hypothesis. Transforming Anthropology 14 (1). (2005)
- Maes, Kenneth C. and George J. Armelagos. Comment on Margaret Lock's "The Eclipse of the Gene and the Return of Divination." Current Anthropology 46S: S63-S64.
Presentations:
- "Race, Biomedicine and Anthropology: A Fatal Attraction." Invited presentation delivered with George J. Armelagos at the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia ( March, 2006).
- "Conceptual links between antebellum and post-genomic racial medicine." Presented at the annual Anthropology Graduate Symposium, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia (February, 2006)
- "Race, Health and Anthropology." Paper co-authored with George J. Armelagos. Presented at the 104th annual meetings of the American Anthropological Association, Washington, D.C., Nov. 30 – Dec. 4, 2005.
- "Preliminary analysis of dental morphology and identity of an early iron producing population in the Mouhoun Bend, Burkina Faso." Poster co-authored with J.D. Irish, A.F.C. Holl, P.L. Walker, G.J. Armelagos. Presented at the 73rd annual meetings of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, Tampa, Florida (April 2004).
- "Emerging Malaria and Trypanosomiasis in West African societies from the Neolithic to the present." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Southern Anthropological Society, Atlanta, Georgia.( March 2004)
- "West African Trephination: Skeletal remains from the Tora Sira Tomo settlement complex in Burkina Faso." Poster co-authored with T. Gjerdrum, A.F.C. Holl, and P.Walker. Presented at the 14th Biennial European Members Meeting of the Paleopathology Association, Coimbra, Portugal (Summer 2002)
Daniel
Mains (B.S. in Philosophy, Lewis & Clark College, 1997; M.A.
Emory University Department of Anthropology, 2003) Ph.D. Department of
Anthropology
Research Interests: Youth, Unemployment, African Cities, Status, Popular Culture, and Inequality. I completed 18 months of research in Jimma, Ethiopia in May 2005. My research was concerned with extremely high rates of unemployment among urban youth and the gap this has created between aspirations for the future and economic opportunity. In my dissertation I am examining the various cultural and economic mechanisms that youth used in order to bridge this gap. These include different ways of working and not working, religion, fashion, consuming drugs and alcohol, watching films, playing sports, and hours of conversation among ones peers. Each of these day-to-day activities is interrelated with social, economic, and temporal inequality. In examining these issues I am attempting to situate my study within the context of local history, national political change, and increasing global flows of finance and culture.
10/2002-04/2004 - Jimma, Ethiopia; Conducted research project titled "Desire and Opportunity among Urban Youth in Ethiopia" for Ph.D. dissertation. Research focused on unemployment, cultural change, and values surrounding occupation and status among urban youth.
06/2002-08/2002 - Jimma, Ethiopia; Conducted preliminary research for Ph.D. dissertation focusing primarily on local history.
Honors and Fellowships:
- Emory University Graduate Scholarship (2000 - present)
- Fulbright-Hays Fellowship in support of dissertation research (2003 - 2004)
- Emory University Graduate School Fund for Internationalization Grant (2002 -2003)
- Vernacular Modernities Fellowship (2001 - 2002)
- Sawyer Seminar Graduate Student Research Awards (2001 & 2002)
- Emory University Institute for African Studies, Summer Research Grant (2001)
Paper Presentations:
- "Working, Dreaming, and Chewing: Chat Use and Employment Among Young Men in Jimma, Ethiopia". Workshop on Khat and the Ethiopian Reality: Production, Marketing, and Consumption, April 16, 2004.Addis Ababa University.
- "Religion, Rumor, and Political Change in Jimma, Ethiopia". African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Dec. 5-8, 2002. Washington, D.C.
Teaching Experience:
- Teaching Assistant, Anthropology 190, ICIS Freshman Seminar ( Spring 2006)
- Teaching Assistant, Anthropology 101, Introduction to Anthropology (Spring 2003)
- Teaching Assistant, Anthropology 150, Cultures of Africa (Fall 2001)
Sarah
M. Mathis (M.A. University of Notre Dame, 1999,
B.S. Principia College, 1997) Ph.D. program, Anthropology
Research Interests: I have just returned from two years in South Africa investigating how rural communities have been impacted by economic and political developments in the post-apartheid period. While the new state has concentrated on neoliberal economic policies aimed at stabilizing the country's economy, rural communities have found themselves largely left out of national development programs. Faced with high levels of unemployment, a decline in the viability of migrant labor, and an increase in the involvement of women and youth in underpaid temporary and informal employment, rural communities have been forced to develop new strategies of survival. In addition, the intense political negotiations around the role of customary leaders and their control over land, have created uncertainty regarding the future of political governance in rural areas. In response to these conditions of economic insecurity, rural communities have been positioning themselves to take advantage of the recent proliferation of rural development and Black Economic Empowerment projects sponsored by non-profits and the private sector. My research examined how these economic changes have altered household survival strategies and created new areas of conflict over the mobility and access to income of women and youth, who are at the same time negotiating changes within the customary systems used to resolve these gender and generational conflicts.
Honors and Fellowships:
- Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship ( May 2003)
- Wenner-Gren Individual Research Grant (May 2003)
- Emory University Fund for Internationalization (April 2003)
- Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, Intermediate Intensive isiZulu (2001)
- Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Fellowship (2001)
- Emory University Graduate Fellowship (1999)
Paper Presentations:
- 'Linking Forms of Violence: Faction-Fighting and Political Violence in Umbumbulu in the 1980s and 1990s' to be presented at African History Seminar, Emory University, March 23, 2006
- 'Disobedient Daughters: Debating Culture and Rights in Rural Umbumbulu' to be presented at the American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Dec. 02, 2005
- 'Land Tenure and Political Authority: Reevaluating Land in the Context of Economic Insecurity in Umbumbulu, South Africa' to be presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, Nov. 18, 2005
- 'From War Leaders to Freedom Fighters: Shifting Forms of Violence in Umbumbulu during the 1980s and 1990s' presented at the History and African Studies Seminar, University of KwaZulu-Natal, May 18, 2005
- 'Disobedient Daughters and the Discourse of Rights: Mother-Daughter Discord in Rural KwaZulu-Natal' presented at History and African Studies Seminar, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Nov. 10, 2004
Teaching Experience:
- Teaching Assistant for Cultures of Africa with Dr. Hudita Mustafa (Fall 2002)
- Teaching Assistant for Introduction to Anthropology with Dr. Bradd Shore (Fall 2001)
Philip
Misevich (B. A., St John's University, 2002) Ph.D. program, History Department
Research interest: Slave trade of the Upper Guinea Coast in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (when slave exports were at their highest point). I have benefited greatly from the use of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, which has allowed me to develop a clear picture of the volume of the slave trade from this region over time. My current research focuses more on the African interior, trying to make sense of the fluctuating trade patterns along the coast. I am working with records from the early-nineteenth century that contain the first extant list of indigenous slave names, taken from vessels that were captured after the British ended the slave trade. Together with two Sierra Leonean consultants, I am attempting to determine the likely ethnic and geographic origins of the more-than 6,500 names found in these records. From there I will explore the military developments of the hinterland of the Upper Guinea Coast , particularly the increasing militarization of the Fula state of the Futa Djalon. Using eighteenth- and nineteen-century travel narratives, journals of slave dealers, and oral accounts of the Fula wars, I will reconstruct the aggressive policies of this powerful Islamic state and link its conquests to the slave-trading patterns documented at coastal ports.
Molly McCullers (B.A. Psychology, summa cum laude, Clemson University, 2005) Ph.D. program, History Department
Research interest: I am interested in the intersection of gender, confinement, and atrocity in the making of memory and history. My research focuses on the Herero genocide and traditionalist movements of the 1920's-1960's in Namibia. I want to look at how violence affects the formation of identity and also the process by which memory and history interact to incorporate and ignore information in a mutually constitutive way.
Charles
Muiru Ngugi (B.A. Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, 1987)
Ph.D. program, Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts
Research interests and biographical notice: A recovering journalist whose research interests include African political history, consolidation of democracy, political culture, globalization, and collective identities, and how these are shaped by the mass media. His published work has appeared in the African Media Review, Media Development and Media Focus. He contributed a chapter in the book Development Communication Principles, edited by Charles Okigbo. His journalism has appeared in many magazines and newspapers including, Daily Nation, The Standard, Nairobi Law Monthly, The East African, The Weekly Review, and West Africa, as well as in features syndicates such as PANOS and Gemini News Service.
Before coming to Emory, Ngugi studied journalism at the Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, graduating in 1987, at the University of Wales, Cardiff, UK., where he completed his MA in journalism in 1994, and at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, where he pursued a PhD in Cultural Studies. He has been a winner of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Scholarship (1993), amongst other awards.
Some of the courses he has taught include: Politics of Identity (Emory University, Atlanta, GA), Neighborhoods, Immigrants and Border Crossing (New Century College, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA), and African Media Systems,Introduction to Mass Communication, and Magazine Journalism (Daystar University, Nairobi, Kenya). He also taught web design, business writing, and Internet governance at Howard University Continuing Education. In addition, he was a teaching assistant to Emory's Prof. Edna Bay in her course, Introduction to African Studies. Further details are available at his still-under-construction (keep checking) web site at http:// userwww.service.emory.edu/~ cngugi/. He may be reached at cngugi@emory.edu
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Research Interests:Youth, nationalism, governmentality, post-coloniality. My thesis is concerned with the evolution of state policy on youth in Ghana in both the late-colonial and early post-colonial periods (1940-1966). By examining the specific fields of education, social welfare and ideological training, the project tries to understand how youth were positioned as a key site for political and cultural modernization by both the colonial and post-colonial states. Youth in a rapidly urbanizing Ghana became both a social problem to be solved and future citizens who could construct the new (post)colonial society. By analyzing the experiences of those who worked with youth and of youth themselves, I try to understand the social meanings attached to larger political transformations.
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| Jeremy Pool with friends in Accra (© J. Pool, 2005) |
Honors and fellowships:
- Fulbright - Institute for International Education, U.S. Department of State, 2003-2004
- Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad, Fulbright-Hays, U.S. Department of Education, 2003-2004 (Declined)
- Joseph Mathews Dissertation Travel Award, History Dept., Emory University, 2002-2003
- Graduate Student Research Award, Sawyer Seminar, Emory University, 2002
- Summer Funding for Dissertation Research, Institute of African Studies, Emory University, 2002. Pre-Dissertation Research Grant, Emory University Fund for Internationalization, 2001
- Summer Language Training Grant, History Department, Emory University, 1999. Four-Year Fellowship, History Department, Emory University, 1998-2002.
Teaching Experience:
- Designed and taught, "Topics in Historical Analysis: African Nationalism and the Independence Struggle." Spring 2002
- Teaching Assistant for "The Making of Modern Africa" with Dr. Kristin Mann. Spring 2000
Veerle Poupeye (License, Rijksuniversiteit, Gent, Belgium, 1984) Ph.D. program, Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts.
Veerle Poupeye holds the degrees of Candidate (1980) and Licenciate (1984) in Art History from the Rijksuniversiteit, Gent, Belgium, and is a Doctoral Candidate at Emory University's Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts. She has worked at the National Gallery of Jamaica since 1984, first as Education Officer and as of 1987 as a Curator. She has published widely about Caribbean art and visual culture, including the books Modern Jamaican Art (1998), which she co-authored with David Boxer, and Caribbean Art (1998), her first full-length book which was published in the World of Art series of Thames and Hudson. She has presented papers at Caribbean Studies and art-related conferences, most recently at the 2003 Congress of the International Association of Art Critics in Barbados, where she was an invited speaker. She has also lectured at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica (Caribbean, Latin American and Western Art History; Research Methods); Emory University (Visual Culture); and at New York University (Caribbean Visual Culture), as visiting faculty at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies in Spring 2003. Her research interests extend to all aspects of Caribbean art and visual culture and, more generally, the role of cultural production and representation in postcolonial and diaspora societies. Her dissertation is a social history of art in Jamaica, which focuses on the interplay between ideological and economic concerns in the development of twentieth-century Jamaican visual art.
 Jed Sevenson and friends in Ethiopia (Summer 2004) |
Research interests:His thesis research aims to investigate the politics of education among an agro-pastoralist society of southern Ethiopia, and to assess the effects of schooling on this society, especially as it impacts the wealth and health of the population. Ethiopia is currently witnessing one of the most spectacular transformations of an education system in the history of modern Africa, as it moves towards the goal of universal primary education by 2015. Like many other African nations, Ethiopia is also heavily burdened by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Jed is interested in how these forces are affecting people on the margins of the Ethiopian state, and the ways the state and the international community responds to them. In the academic year 2004-5, Jed studies International Health at the Rollins School of Public Health, with the help of a fellowship from the Center for Health, Culture, and Society. |
Honors and fellowships:
- Center for Health, Culture, and Society Fellowship, Emory University, 2004-2005
- Sawyer Seminar Graduate Research Travel Award, Emory University, 2003
- Language Training and Travel Award, Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 2003
- Knox Fellowship, Harvard University (offered), 2002
- Gordon Childe Memorial Prize for Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, London
Professional Experience:
1998-2002: Archaeologist. Worked on field survey and excavation projects in UK, Greece, Turkey, and Kuwait.
Teaching experience
TA for Introduction to Anthropology (with Prof. Bradd Shore) (2003)
John Willis (BA, Atlanta Clark University, 1998; Cornell University, Masters of Professional Studies, 2000) Ph.D. program, History Department
Research interests: My research aims to provide an historical perspective of religion in Africa and the African diaspora. My interests include ritual traditions like Mami Wata, Vodou, Orisha, Santeria, and Candomble. Currently, I am working on a dissertation project that focuses on Yoruba masquerades. What follows is an abstract of this project. It addresses the themes that I deem critical to studies of religion in Africa and the African diaspora. Studies of masquerades have by and large failed to consider adequately the intersection of the history of masquerades and African political and economic history. Although the literature reveals the organizational structures and performance events through which masquerades control, mediate, and dramatize sociopolitical relations between community members, it neglects the historical development of these institutions in the pre-colonial period. Often portraying masquerades as ahistorical, it overlooks the impact of sociopolitical, economic, and religious transformations on meaning and forms or assumes artistic productions to be insignificant and not an agent of historical change. Taking the Yoruba as a case study, I investigate how masquerades have mediated and controlled relations within and between classes, genders, and generations along with how they have been arenas in which conflicts were played out and alliances formed in relation to these groups. I seek to link Yoruba political and economic history with a history of Yoruba masquerades. I argue that masquerades have been central to political economies. My research is path-breaking in that it is the first comparative study of several masquerades (Egungun, Oro, and Gelede) that also provides an in depth historical analysis of the development of these institutions in the context of broader transformations in a community known as Ota from 1852-1893, for which a wealth of source materials exist.
Honors and fellowships:
- Mellon Graduate Research Assistantship, 2002-2004
- Emory Internationalization Funds Research Grant, 2002-2003
- Emory GSAS Sawyer Fellowship Recipient, 2001-2002
- Emory Institute of African Studies African Language Grant, 2001
- Emory History Department Summer Research Grant, 2001
- Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) Recipient, 2000-2001
- Cornell Graduate Assistantship, 1999-2000
- Sage Graduate Fellowship/Cornell University, 1998-1999
- Cornell Graduate School Summer Research Travel Grant ( Nigeria), 1999
Papers and presentations:
- "Continuity and Change: Ifa, Religion, and Accommodation in Colonial Nigeria," Panelist at 31 st Annual African Heritage Studies Association, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1999
- "Continuity and Change: Ifa, Religion, and Accommodation in Colonial Nigeria," Guest Speaker, Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, MI, 1999
- "Babalawo: Perceptions of Ifa as a Social and Political Power in Colonial Nigeria," Panelist at Fourth Annual Midwest Graduate Student Conference, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 1999
- "The Gikuyu Education System: The Otaari Wa Moche Approach ," Panelist at New York African Students Association, State University of New York at Oswego, NY, 1999
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