Joseph A.Brown, Ph.D. My personal Web Page

Office: Faner, 4024

Phone: 618/453-7147

Joseph A. Brown, SJ; Ph. D. , Professor and Director, Black American Studies. With degrees from St. Louis University (1968), B.A , Philosophy and Letters; M. A., from Johns Hopkins University (1969), the Writing Seminars; M. A., in Afro-American Studies, from Yale University (1983), and the Ph. D., in American Studies from Yale (1984).

Religious Affiliation: Roman Catholic priest, member of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).

Published poetry and articles in a variety of journals and magazines, from America to Callaloo. Books: Accidental Grace (1986, Callaloo Poetry Series); A Retreat With Thea Bowman and Bede Abram: Leaning on the Lord (1997, St. Anthony Messenger Press); To Stand on the Rock: Meditations on Black Catholic Identity (1998, Orbis Books); Sweet, Sweet Spirit: Prayer Services From the Black Catholic Church (2006, St. Anthony Messenger Press).

Teaching Experience: Creighton University (1973- 1978); University of Virginia (1984-1991); Xavier University of Louisiana (1991-1994); Southern Illinois University of Carbondale (1997 – )

Major areas: African American literature, theology, aesthetics.

Frank M. Chipasula, Ph.D. http://www.earthcds.com/africa/south/malawi/shoulders.shtml

Office: Faner, 4030

Phone: 618/453-7147,e-mail: fchipasu@siu.edu

Malawian poet, editor and fiction writer, born on 16 October 1949; B.A. (with Credit) University of Zambia, 1976; M.A. (Creative Writing) Brown University, 1980; M.A. (Afro-American Studies) Yale University, 1982 and Ph.D. (English Literature—Yeats) Brown University, 1987. Currently an Associate Professor in the Black American Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, I have taught at Howard University, Tamkang University in Taipei, Taiwan, University of Nebraska at Omaha, St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, as well as Brown and Yale Universities. For a year I served as Education Attaché in the Malawi Embassy in Washington, D.C. I have also worked as English Editor for NECZAM Ltd., the former national publishers of Zambia in Lusaka (1976 – 1978) and, as an undergraduate student at the University of Malawi, I freelanced on the M.B.C. (Malawi Broadcasting Corporation) in Blantyre, Malawi (1971 – 73).

PUBLISHED BOOKS:

1: Visions and Reflections.  Lusaka, Zambia: NECZAM, 1972 (poems).

2: A Decade in Poetry. (ed). Lusaka: Kenneth Kaunda Foundation, 1980.

3: O Earth, Wait for Me. Johannesburg: Ravan Press, 1984 (poems).

4: WHEN MY BROTHERS COME HOME: Poems from Central and Southern Africa (ed). Middletown, CT.: Wesleyan University Press, 1985; rpt 1986 (First major regional anthology).

5: NIGHTWATCHER, Nightsong. Peterborough, Cambs.: Paul Green (Publisher), 1986 (chapbook).

6: Whispers in the Wings: New and Selected Poems. Oxford: Heinemann International, 1991.

7: The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry (co-edited with Stella). Oxford: Heinemann Publishers, 1995 (the FIRST ever anthology of African women’s poetry).

Leonard Kodzo Gadzekpo , Ph.D.

Trip to Ghana, Africa

Office: Faner, 4022

Phone: 618/453-7147,e-mail:gadzekpo@siu.edu

Ph.D. (American Culture Studies)1997, M.F.A.(Art)1993,        M.A.(German)1992, Bowling Green State University       B.A., University of Science and Technology (Kumasi, Ghana) 1981.       Major areas: Africana Studies, Culture Studies, Aesthetics, Painting, and Languages

Biographical Information

Dr. Leonard Kodzo Gadzekpo was born in Cote d'Ivoire and grew up in Ghana. He got his first degree from the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, and taught in Ghana and Nigeria. He spent four years in Germany as an artist working on religious art pieces for the St. Stepanus Katholische Gemeinde in Oldenburg and studied at Universitaet Oldenburg and Salzburg Universitaet, Austria. From 1990 to 1997 he did graduate studies at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio and earned a M. A. in German, a M. F. A. in Painting and a Ph. D. in American Culture Studies. Before coming to S.I.U., Carbondale, he was Assistant Professor of Art and Interdisciplinary Studies at University of Maine, Orono, Maine. As an artist he has been exhibiting in Africa, Europe, and America. He designed nine stained-glass windows for the Warren A. M. E. Church, Toledo, Ohio, completed several triptychs and altar-pieces for the St. Stephanus Katholische Gemeinde, Oldenburg, Germany, and a mural for the St. Thomas Catholic Church at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He is presently working on a series of paintings dealing with the Africana experience in the world. His writing and research focus on comparative study of Africana history and culture.

Current Projects

Ownership of the Images, Expressive Culture and Africana Aesthetics

Capoeira, Break-dancing, African Dances and Africanisms

Shakespeare Studies and Blacks (Titus Andronicus, Othello, and The Tempest)

Blacks and Germans, 1965 to 2000

Selected Publications

Leonard Gadzekpo. -------. “African-Ethos Identity: Aspects of Identity among Africans and in the African Diaspora”. Lagos Historical Review, Vol.3, 2003. 132-150.

Dibie, Robert and Leonard Gadzekpo. "Managing Public Servants Ethics in Ghana and Nigeria" in Politics Administration and Change. No. 39, January-June, 2003:1-24.

Leonard Gadzekpo. Ghanaian Women and Environmental Policy in The Journal Of African Policy Studies Vol.7 No. 2/3 (2001). 29-44.

-------. "The Black Church, Slavery, the Civil Rights Movement and the Future " in The Journal of Religious Thought Vol.53/54 No 2/1(1997) Washington D.C.:Howard University.95-112. http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/86.3/rs_1.html

Pamela Smoot, Ph.D.

Office:Faner, 4028

Phone: 618/453-7147,e-mail: olivia@siu.edu

Assistant Professor. Ph.D., Michigan State University (American History); Certificate, Archival Administration; M.S.,(Wayne State University); European History (Tennessee State University); B.A., American History (Tennessee State University). Major areas: U.S. History, African American History, African and African American Women’s History; Oral History; Archival Administration.

John C. McCall, Ph.D.

Office: Faner,3543

Phone: 618/453-5010, jmccall@siu.edu Web site : http://www.siu.edu/~anthro/mccall/

John C. McCall (Associate Professor of Anthropology and Africana
Studies) teaches classes on African culture and history including
"Peoples and Cultures of Africa" (BAS 310A) and "African
Expressive Culture" (BAS 410H). He recently received a fellowship
to attend a National Endowment for the Humanities Institute on
African Cinema for four weeks in Dakar, Senegal. Drawing on that
experience, he is currently developing a new course called
"Africa in African Cinema" that teaches about life in Africa
through the lens of African film and television.

McCall has been conducting ethnographic research in Nigeria since
1989. His is currently co-Principle Investigator (with Olusegun
Ojewuyi) of "The Nollywood Project" -- a collaborative research
venture on the Nigerian video movie industry housed in the Global
Media Research Center, a unit of the College of Mass
Communications and Media Arts at SIUC. McCall spent three months
in 2002 in Nigeria conducting field research on Nigerian popular
videos and their audience funded by a Fulbright-Hays Faculty
Research Abroad Fellowship. He is currently working on a book on
Nollywood entitled: "The Video Coup in African Cinema: Nigeria’s
Popular Movies and Their Audience." In this project McCall draws
on his extensive field research in Nigeria to interpret Nigerian
movies in terms of the religious, social, political, and economic
context from which they come. McCall's publications on this topic
have appeared in "The African Studies Review," "Africa Today,"
"Transition" (Dubois Institute, Harvard), and "Fader Magazine."

Ronald A. Caffey, Ph.D.

Office: Faner,4032

Phone: 618/453-7147, rcaffey1@siu.edu

Dr. Caffey joined the Black American Studies (BAS) faculty in 2008, using his varied background to teach courses related to educational history, cultural leadership and also be part of the BAS Core Curriculum faculty. Prior to joining the BAS faculty, he served as Director of the Minority Engineering Program (MEP) at SIUC for six years.  In this post, Dr. Caffey was responsible for managing recruitment and retention activities of minority students in the college.  Prior to accepting his position at SIUC, Dr. Caffey was the owner/operator of New Millennium Transportation in Chicago.  He has also worked in several industrial organizations such as Prairie Packaging in Bridgeview, Sweetheart Cup Co. in Chicago, Nabisco Biscuit Co., also in Chicago, and Ozite Company, in Libertyville, IL.  In addition, he has worked as a management consultant for SWI Management Consulting Services, specializing in training systems design.

Publications:
J. Mathias, L. Gupta, J. Nicklow, J. Tezcan, R. Caffey, B. Chrisman, C. Pearson, K. Pericak-Spector, R. Kowalchuk, E. Lewis, & H. Sevim, “Improved retention through innovative academic and nonacademic programs.” Proceedings of the 2007 ASEE Conference, Honolulu, HI, June 24-27, 2007.

Current Projects:

• The impact of institutional characteristics on six-year graduation rates of African American students at traditionally white institutions
• Mixed-method analysis of the Summer Bridge Program for SIUC College of Engineering students
• The role of the Church in the lives of African American college students (with Dr. Saran Donahoo)