# People
**Source**: https://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/aaas-people
**Parent**: https://aaas.fas.harvard.edu/
## PEOPLE
Faculty
Graduate Students
Undergraduates
Alumni
Administration
Emeriti
## Faculty
[### Daniel E. Agbiboa](/people/daniel-e-agbiboa)
[danielagbiboa@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:danielagbiboa@fas.harvard.edu)
John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies
Daniel E. Agbiboa is Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, where he also serves as Faculty Associate of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Affiliate Faculty of the Bloomberg Center for Cities...
[### Francis Akutey-Baffoe](/people/francis-akutey-baffoe)
[francis\_akuteibaffoe@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:francis_akuteibaffoe@fas.harvard.edu)
African Language Program Preceptor
Francis Akutey-Baffoe is from Kumasi in Ghana. He is a Preceptor of African Languages in the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Twi and Sociology, as well as a master’s degree in...
[### Emmanuel K. Akyeampong](/people/emmanuel-k-akyeampong)
[akyeamp@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:akyeamp@fas.harvard.edu)
Ellen Gurney Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies;
Professor Akyeampong joined the History faculty at Harvard upon receiving his Ph.D. in African History from the University of Virginia in 1993. He received his master's degree at Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1989, where he concentrated on...
[### Paulina L. Alberto](/people/paulina-l-alberto)
Professor of African and African American Studies and of History
Director of Graduate Studies
Office Hours: Sign-Up Available via Canvas. Paulina L. Alberto is a historian of Afro-Latin American lives, thought, and politics as they unfolded in the aftermath of slavery, particularly in Brazil and Argentina. Her work explores the intersections of...
[aliasani@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:aliasani@fas.harvard.edu)
Murray A. Albertson Professor of Middle Eastern Studies
Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures
On Leave
Professor Asani holds a joint appointment between NELC and the Study of Religion. He also serves on the faculty of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. He has taught at Harvard since 1983, offering instruction in a variety of languages such as...
[gaumoithe@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:gaumoithe@fas.harvard.edu)
Assistant Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
Office Hours: On Zoom by appointment, typically Thursdays at 3 PM George Aumoithe, BA (Bowdoin), MA, MPhil, PhD (Columbia), RYT-200 (Yoga Alliance), is a scholar-artist and historian of the 20th century United States. Professor Aumoithe joins Harvard as a...
[rbernst@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:rbernst@fas.harvard.edu)
Dillon Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies and of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Director of the Program in American Studies
On Leave 2025-2026
I am a cultural historian who specializes in U.S. racial formation from the nineteenth century to the present. A graduate of Yale's doctoral program American Studies and an elected member of the American Antiquarian Society, I am the Dillon Professor of...
[### Suzanne P. Blier](/people/suzanne-p-blier)
[blier@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:blier@fas.harvard.edu)
Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts
Professor of African and African American Studies
On Leave 2025-2026
Suzanne Preston Blier (Ph.D. 1981 Columbia, Allen Whitehill Clowes Professor of Fine Arts and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University) is an historian of African art and architecture in both the History of Art and Architecture and...
[### Lawrence D. Bobo](/people/lawrence-d-bobo)
[lawrence\_bobo@harvard.edu](mailto:lawrence_bobo@harvard.edu)
Dean of Social Science
W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences
On Leave 2025-2026
Lawrence D. Bobo is the Dean of Social Science and the W. E. B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University. He holds appointments in the Department of Sociology and the Department of African and African American Studies. His research...
[brown8@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:brown8@fas.harvard.edu)
Charles Warren Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies
Multi-media historian Vincent Brown is Charles Warren Professor of History and Professor of African and African-American Studies and is the Director of the History Design Studio at Harvard University. His research, writing, teaching, and other creative...
[### Glenda R. Carpio](/people/glenda-r-carpio)
[carpio@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:carpio@fas.harvard.edu)
Powell M. Cabot Professor of English and Professor of African and African American Studies
Glenda R. Carpio is Professor of African and African American Studies and English at Harvard University. Her book, Laughing Fit to Kill: Black Humor in the Fictions of Slavery was published by Oxford University Press in 2008. She is currently working on a...
[bcarvalh@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:bcarvalh@fas.harvard.edu)
Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and African and African American Studies
Co-Director of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative
Affiliated Professor in Urban Planning and Design at the Graduate School of Design
Bruno Carvalho works on cities as lived and imagined spaces. He studies relationships between cultural practices and urbanization, with a focus on Brazil. Carvalho’s interdisciplinary approaches bridge history, literary analysis, and urban studies. Often...
[chalhoub@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:chalhoub@fas.harvard.edu)
David and Peggy Rockefeller Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
Chair, Department of History
Faculty Affiliate, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
On Leave 2025-2026
Sidney Chalhoub taught history at the University of Campinas, Brazil, for thirty years. He moved to Harvard in July 2015. A social historian of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Brazil, his first monograph, Trabalho, lar e botequim (1986), is a...
Assistant Professor of Sociology
On Leave 2025-2026
Christina Cross is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Her research falls at the intersection of families, race/ethnicity, and social inequality. She examines how family structure, change, and dynamics influence individuals’ life...
Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture
Gareth Doherty is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design and principal of the Critical Landscapes Design Lab. Doherty takes a human-centered approach to landscape architecture, applying ethnographic fieldwork...
[### Myisha S. Eatmon](/people/myisha-s-eatmon)
Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies and of History
Dr. Myisha S. Eatmon is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in African and African American Studies and History at Harvard University, where she has served since 2022. A Chapel Hill, North Carolina native, she specializes in examining how marginalized...
[taiwo\_ehineni@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:taiwo_ehineni@fas.harvard.edu)
African Language Program Preceptor
Taiwo O Ehineni is a Preceptor of African Languages in the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics with a concentration in African Languages and an M.A. in Linguistics, both from Indiana...
[elkins@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:elkins@fas.harvard.edu)
Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies
Professor Elkins's first book, Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya, was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction. It was also selected as one of the Economist's best history books for 2005, was a New York Times...
[### Marla F. Frederick](/people/marla-f-frederick)
[hdsdeansoffice@hds.harvard.edu](mailto:hdsdeansoffice@hds.harvard.edu)
Professor of Religion and Culture
Dean of the Faculty of Divinity
Marla Frederick is a leading ethnographer and scholar focused on the African American religious experience. She became the eighteenth Dean of Harvard Divinity School on January 1, 2024. Frederick employs an interdisciplinary approach to examining the ways...
[### Alejandro de la Fuente](/people/alejandro-de-la-fuente)
[delafuente@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:delafuente@fas.harvard.edu)
Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics;
Professor of African and African American Studies and of History;
Director, Afro-Latin American Research Institute, Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University
A historian of Latin America and the Caribbean who specializes in the study of comparative slavery and race relations, Professor de la Fuente’s works on race, slavery, law, art, and Atlantic history have been published in Spanish, English, Portuguese...
[### Henry Louis Gates Jr.](/people/henry-louis-gates-jr)
[gates@harvard.edu](mailto:gates@harvard.edu)
Alphonse Fletcher, Jr. University Professor
Director, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research
On Leave 2025-2026
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic...
Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and of African and African-American Studies
On Leave
Claudine Gay is the Wilbur A. Cowett Professor of Government and Professor of African and African-American Studies. She served as the 30th president of Harvard University, the Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the dean of...
[### Jarvis R. Givens](/people/jarvis-r-givens)
[jarvis\_givens@gse.harvard.edu](mailto:jarvis_givens@gse.harvard.edu)
Professor of Education
Professor of African and African-American Studies
Jarvis R. Givens is a Professor of Education and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and he is also the co-founding faculty director of the Black Teacher Archive. As a historian who focuses on 19th and 20th-century African American...
Assistant Professor of History and African and African American Studies
David (Dave) Glovsky is a historian of 19th and 20th century West Africa, with a focus on Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and the Gambia. His research and teaching interests include histories of mobility and migration, borderlands, spatial history, Islam...
[emilygreenwood@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:emilygreenwood@fas.harvard.edu)
Professor of the Classics and Comparative Literature
Research Interests: ancient Greek prose literature, Greek historiography, classical reception studies, black studies, postcolonial literature and theory. In broad terms, I am interested in the plural histories of use that make up the classical tradition...
[### Evelynn M. Hammonds](/people/evelynn-m-hammonds)
[hammonds@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:hammonds@fas.harvard.edu)
Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and Professor of African and African American Studies
Chair of the Department of the History of Science
Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
Professor Evelynn M. Hammonds is the Barbara Gutmann Rosenkrantz Professor of the History of Science and of African and African American Studies. Professor Hammonds joined the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2002 after teaching at the Massachusetts...
[ahenry@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:ahenry@fas.harvard.edu)
Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies
Faculty Affiliate of the Afro-Latin American Research Institute (ALARI)
Amber M. Henry is an anthropologist of Latin America and the Caribbean whose work explores political mobilization and embodied practices in relation to sovereign forms of Black placemaking. Professor Henry’s first book centers on the Afro-Colombian...
[### Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham](/people/evelyn-brooks-higginbotham)
[ebhiggin@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:ebhiggin@fas.harvard.edu)
Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies
Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She held the position of chair of the Department of African and African American Studies from 2006-2013. In summer...
[### Jennifer L. Hochschild](/people/jennifer-l-hochschild)
[hochschild@gov.harvard.edu](mailto:hochschild@gov.harvard.edu)
Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies
Member of the Faculty of Education; Harvard College Professor; Member of the Faculty at the John F. Kennedy School of Government
Jennifer Hochschild is the Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government at Harvard University, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Harvard College Professor. In 2011, she held the John W. Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance at the...
[thucks@hds.harvard.edu](mailto:thucks@hds.harvard.edu)
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Africana Religious Studies
Suzanne Young Murray Professor (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)
Tracey Hucks is a nationally known and esteemed scholar of Africana Studies and American Religious History. She has served most recently as Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Colgate University where she has been James A. Storing Professor of Religion and...
[vijayiyer@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:vijayiyer@fas.harvard.edu)
Franklin D. and Florence Rosenblatt Professor of the Arts
Graduate Advisor in Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry (CPCI)
Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” VIJAY IYER has carved out a unique path as a prolific, shape-shifting presence in American music...
[### Terrence L. Johnson](/people/terrence-l-johnson)
[tjohnson@hds.harvard.edu](mailto:tjohnson@hds.harvard.edu)
Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies
Terrence L. Johnson is Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies. His research interests include African American political thought, ethics, American religions, and the role of religion in public life. Johnson's interdisciplinary...
[johnson2@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:johnson2@fas.harvard.edu)
Winthrop Professor of History and Professor of African and African American Studies
Walter Johnson's work focuses on slavery, capitalism, and, increasingly, imperialism in the nineteenth century. His first book, Soul by Soul (1999) used the slave market as a way to think about the fantasies, fears, negotiations, and violence that...
[mlamont@wjh.harvard.edu](mailto:mlamont@wjh.harvard.edu)
Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies, Professor of Sociology, and Professor of African and African American Studies
Michèle Lamont is Professor of Sociology and of African and African American Studies and the Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. Born in 1957, she grew up in Quebec and studied political theory at the University of...
[sarahlewis@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:sarahlewis@fas.harvard.edu)
John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies
Sarah Lewis is an art and cultural historian. She is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Lewis is the founder of Vision & Justice, a catalytic civic...
[cdmartin@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:cdmartin@fas.harvard.edu)
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Carla D. Martin is a Lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She has published in academic journals ranging from Management Information Systems Quarterly, Social Dynamics...
[jessemccarthy@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:jessemccarthy@fas.harvard.edu)
John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and of the Social Sciences
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Education: Ph.D. in English, Princeton University 2018 M.A. in English, Princeton University 2013 B.A. English, Amherst College 2006 Interests: the novel, African American literature, African diaspora literatures, postwar or post-45 literary history...
[emonk@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:emonk@fas.harvard.edu)
Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ellis Monk is Assistant Professor of Sociology. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He previously taught at the University of Chicago and...
[mugane@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:mugane@fas.harvard.edu)
Professor of the Practice of African Languages and Cultures and Director of the African Language Program
John M. Mugane is the Director of the African Language program in the Department of African and African American Studies. He is a linguist specializing in African languages and is the Professor of the Practice of African Languages and Cultures at Harvard...
[### Tinashe Mushakavanhu](/people/tinashe-mushakavanhu)
Assistant Professor in African and African American Studies
Dr. Tinashe Mushakavanhu is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Previously, he was a Junior Research Fellow in African and Comparative Literature at the University of Oxford. He holds a PhD in...
[olupona@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:olupona@fas.harvard.edu)
Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies and Professor of African Religious Traditions
Chair of the Department of African and African American Studies
Jacob K. Olupona is Professor of African Religious Traditions, Harvard Divinity School and Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He studied at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Boston University where...
Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies
Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor, Harvard Radcliffe Institute
On Leave 2025-2026
Professor Imani Perry is appointed jointly as Professor in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, and in African and African American Studies. She is scheduled to teach a course on Black feminist theory in fall 2023 and the WGS Junior Tutorial in Spring...
[tshelby@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:tshelby@fas.harvard.edu)
Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy
On Leave 2025-2026
Interests: Africana philosophy, social and political philosophy, philosophy of race, social theory, W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Tommie Shelby is Lee Simpkins Family Professor of Arts and Sciences and Caldwell Titcomb...
Professor of English and of African and African American Studies
Susan S. and Kenneth L. Wallach Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute
Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, memoirist, editor, translator and librettist. She served as the 22 nd Poet Laureate of the United States from 2017-19, during which time she spearheaded American Conversations: Celebrating Poetry in Rural...
[dsommer@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:dsommer@fas.harvard.edu)
Ira Jewell Williams, Jr., Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures and of African and African American Studies
Director of the Cultural Agents Initiative at Harvard University
Professor Sommer's research interests have developed from the 19th-Century novels that helped to consolidate new republics in Latin America through the particular aesthetics of minoritarian literature, including bilingual virtuosity, to her current more...
[stauffer@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:stauffer@fas.harvard.edu)
Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies
On Leave 2025-2026
JOHN STAUFFER is the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He is the author or editor of 20 books and over 100 articles, which mostly focus on antislavery, social protest...
[bterry@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:bterry@fas.harvard.edu)
John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences
Brandon M. Terry is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University and the co-director of the Institute on Policing, Incarceration, and Public Safety at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Born...
[### Marlous van Waijenburg](/people/marlous-van-waijenburg)
Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School
Marlous van Waijenburg (Ph.D History 2017, Northwestern University) is an Assistant Professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy Unit at Harvard Business School , and Afilliate Assistant Professor at AAAS. Before joining Harvard, she...
[### David R. Williams](/people/david-r-williams)
[dwilliam@hsph.harvard.edu](mailto:dwilliam@hsph.harvard.edu)
Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health in the School of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
David R. Williams is the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health. He is also a Professor of African and African American Studies and Sociology at Harvard University. Previously, he served 6 years on the faculty of Yale...
## Graduate Students
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Aabid Allibhai is a PhD candidate in the Department of African and African American Studies, with a primary field in history. Education: PhD Candidate, African and African American Studies, Harvard University (2018–) AM Candidate, History, Harvard...
[timothybarnicle@g.harvard.edu](mailto:timothybarnicle@g.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in Sociology and a secondary field in History
Tim Barnicle is a PhD candidate in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in Sociology and a secondary field in History.
African and African American Studies with a secondary field in Comparative Literature
Peter Corti is a PhD student in the Department of African and African American studies with a secondary field in Comparative Literature. His research interests span literature, national languages, digital humanities, and literary avant-gardes. His...
African Studies with a primary field in History
Joanna Da Sylva is a doctoral student in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in History. She has an MA in International Affairs from The New School and an MA in Educational Studies from The University of British...
African & African American Studies with a primary field in History
Maya Doig-Acuña is a PhD student in African & African American Studies with a primary field in History. Her research interests include Afro-diaspora, feminist studies, memory and family history, and Black geographies. Her current work examines 20th...
African American Studies with a primary field in History of Science
Alexandra Fair is a doctoral student in African American Studies and an AM student in the Department of the History of Science. Her research examines the linguistic strategies Anglo-American eugenic theorists use to reconstitute eugenic ideology in modern...
African and African American Studies with a primary field in History
Cassondra Hanna is a doctoral student at Harvard University in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in History. Her research interests live in the intersections of race, space and education in the making of modern...
[hhewitt@g.harvard.edu](mailto:hhewitt@g.harvard.edu)
African American Studies with a primary field in History and a secondary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Huey Hewitt is a doctoral candidate in African American Studies with a primary field in History and a secondary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. As a Harvard Presidential Scholar and Prize Fellow, Huey researches and writes about the...
African Studies with a primary field in Anthropology
Bulelani Jili is pursuing a Ph.D. in African studies, as an Oppenheimer Graduate Fellow . His research interests include Africa-China relations, Cybersecurity, ICT development, African Political Economy, Internet Policy, Chinese Business Law, Law and...
[### Eduarda Lira de Araujo](/people/eduarda-lira-de-araujo)
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Eduarda Lira de Araujo is a PhD candidate in African and African American Studies, with a primary field in History. She holds a bachelor's degree in Africana Studies from Brown University, and a master's degree in History from Harvard University, where...
[### Elsa Julien Lora](/people/elsa-hardy)
African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Elsa Julien Lora is a PhD candidate in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in History. Her dissertation, Life in Prison: An Intimate History of American Punishment, untangles the relationship between punishment and...
[### Thiago Mattos-Batista](/people/thiago-mattos-batista)
[tmattosbatista@g.harvard.edu](mailto:tmattosbatista@g.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies with a primary field in History
Thiago Mattos-Batista is a Ph.D. student in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in History, and is also affiliated with the Afro-Latin American Research Institute (ALARI) at the Hutchins Center. His research...
African Studies, with a primary field in Religion
Katilau graduated with a B.A. from Vassar College, and a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary. She is interested in Ukambani; African Traditions (Ancestor Veneration, Akamba Philosophy, Bantu Linguistics, Epistemology, Indigeneity, Ontology...
African and African American Studies with a primary field in Anthropology and a secondary field in Critical Media Practice
Junnan Mu is a doctoral student in the department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in Anthropology and a secondary field in Critical Media Practice. Junnan received a BA in Advertising from Zhejiang University and a MA in...
African Studies with a primary field in Anthropology and a secondary field in Critical Media Practice
Aminata Ndow is a Belgian-Gambian researcher, community organizer and filmmaker committed to collaborative practice and multimodal exploration. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Antwerp, a Master’s degree in History from...
[gngugi@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:gngugi@fas.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies with a primary field in History
Grace N. Ngugi is a doctoral candidate in the Departments of History & of African and African American Studies. She also has a secondary field in Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. Her current research focuses on histories of gender, mobility, and...
[### Diekara Oloruntoba-Oju](/people/diekara-oloruntoba-oju)
[doloruntobaoju@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:doloruntobaoju@fas.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies with a primary field in Anthropology
Diekara Oloruntoba-Oju is a doctoral student in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in Anthropology. She did her undergraduate degree in German and French at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and her Masters in...
[### Dinah Orozco-Herrera](/people/dinah-orozco-herrera)
[dinahorozcoherrera@g.harvard.edu](mailto:dinahorozcoherrera@g.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies with a primary field in Romance Languages & Literatures
Dinah Orozco Herrera is an award-winning Colombian Afro-Caribbean poet and educator, as well as a PhD student in the Department of African and African American Studies, with a secondary field in Romance Languages & Literatures, focusing on Spanish. She...
[### Emmanuel Osayande](/people/emmanuel-osayande)
[osayande@g.harvard.edu](mailto:osayande@g.harvard.edu )
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Emmanuel Osayande is a Ph.D. Candidate in History and African and African American Studies. His research interests include international law, human and civil rights, business and human rights, legal history, urban governance, modern African history, and...
## Undergraduates
Joint Concentration:
History and Literature
African American Studies
Christian Gines (he/him) is a Sophomore in Mather House pursuing a Joint Concentration in History and Literature and African American Studies. Christian is the treasurer of the Harvard Debate Council, a writer for The Harvard Crimson Editorial and Arts...
[### Kaysia Harrington](/people/kaysia-harrington)
Kaysia Harrington is a joint concentrator in Social Studies and African-American Studies with a focus on U.S. Schools, Prisons, and Law. Harrington is originally from Owensboro, Kentucky, where she attended Owensboro High School. On campus, Harrington is...
[### Samantha O'Sullivan](/people/samantha-osullivan)
A.B. Candidate in African American Studies and Physics
Samantha O'Sullivan is a senior in Adams House concentrating in African American Studies and Physics. Samantha founded the Generational African American Students Association under the advice of Professor Gates, which serves to provide a community for...
[### Winifred Ofori-Manu](/people/winifred-ofori-manu)
A.B. Candidate in Computer Science, African and African American Studies Winifred’s academic interests focus on human–computer interaction, sociotechnical systems, and the cultural, historical, and political experiences of post-colonial Africa. On campus...
Olajuwon (Jubi) Oladipo (she/her/hers) is a sophomore in Cabot House, pursuing a joint concentration in History and African American Studies, with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights, as well as a language citation in Korean. Broadly, her...
Nell Williams (she/her/hers) is a junior in Leverett House, joint concentrating in Social Studies and African American Studies. Nell is focusing on how art and museums are crucial for studying Black culture and history. She has co-directed Harvard...
## Alumni
[### Amsale (Amy) Alemu](/people/amsale-amy-alemu)
[aalemu@g.harvard.edu](mailto:aalemu@g.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies with a primary field in History
Amsale (Amy) Alemu is a Ph.D. Candidate at Harvard University in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in History. Her dissertation research is on the political imaginaries of transnational movements through a history...
[### Ciana Biasi-Smiley](/people/ciana-biasi-smiley)
[cianabiasismiley@college.harvard.edu](mailto:cianabiasismiley@college.harvard.edu)
A.B. Candidate in African American Studies and Government
Ciana Smiley '21 is a senior in Cabot House concentrating in African American Studies and Government with a focus field in juvenile justice. Ciana is a prison abolitionist whose thesis research focuses on divestment from police in Alameda County, CA and...
[### Lowell Andrew Brower](/people/lowell-andrew-brower)
African Studies, with a primary field in Anthropology
Lowell Brower is a doctoral candidate in African & African American Studies with a primary field in Anthropology. His research centers on African oral traditions and post-conflict storytelling practices in East and Central Africa. His dissertation...
African American Studies, with a primary field in Religion
Khytie Brown is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in Religion. Her research emphasis is on religious expression and cultural production in in the Caribbean and Latin America with particular...
African and African American Studies with a primary field in Government
Kierstan Carter is a doctoral student in African and African American Studies with a primary field in Government (political theory). She studies the theoretical underpinnings of institutions within United States political life, with a special emphasis on...
[chambichachage@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:chambichachage@fas.harvard.edu )
African Studies, with a primary field in History
Chambi Chachage is a PhD student in African Studies with a primary field in History. He holds a BSocSci in Psychological Studies/BA (Hons) in African Studies and MSc in African Studies from the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Edinburgh...
[### Panashe Chigumadzi](/people/panashe-chigumadzi)
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Dr Panashe Chigumadzi is an award-winning writer and historian. Chigumadzi is the author of These Bones Will Rise Again (2018), a historical memoir reflecting on Zimbabwe's 2017 coup and shortlisted for the 2019 Alan Paton Prize for Non-fiction. Her 2015...
[paul\_clarke@g.harvard.edu](mailto:paul_clarke@g.harvard.edu)
African and American Studies, with a primary field in Anthropology
Paul Clarke is a doctoral candidate in African and African American Studies with a primary field in Anthropology. His research centers on issues of labor, policing, and privatization in urban South Africa. Originally from Skokie, Illinois, he received a...
African American Studies, with a primary field in Psychology
Gregory Davis is a doctoral student in African American Studies with a concentration in Psychology. He works with Professor Jim Sidanius in the Sidanius Lab, which studies intergroup relations and power. Gregory completed his bachelors in psychology in...
African Studies, with a primary field in Anthropology
Jess Dickson is a doctoral candidate in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in Social Anthropology and a secondary in Film and Visual Studies. Her dissertation research focuses on the ‘film-service’ sector of South...
[mduerksen@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:mduerksen@fas.harvard.edu )
African Studies, with a primary field in History
Mark Duerksen is a PhD candidate in African Studies with a primary field in African History. He is currently researching the politics and architecture of urban housing in Lagos within the context of the city’s massive transformation into Africa’s largest...
African Studies, with a primary field in English
Armin Fardis is a writer and educator born in Iran and raised in the Bay Area (Northern California). Dr. Fardis' research emphasizes longue durée and transnational social histories of anticolonialism and mass incarceration. In 2020, he defended his...
[jmjones@g.harvard.edu](mailto:jmjones@g.harvard.edu )
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Jovonna Jones is a PhD candidate in African & African American Studies at Harvard University, with a secondary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her research interests include social and cultural history, African American art and cultural...
[abigailniebuhr@g.harvard.edu](mailto:abigailniebuhr@g.harvard.edu)
African and African American Studies with a primary field in Social Anthropology and a secondary field in Studies of Women, Gender, and SexualityAfrican and African American Studies with a primary field in Social Anthropology and a secondary field in Stud
Abigail Katz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of African and African American Studies, with a primary field in Social Anthropology. Her secondary field is in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. Her research interests are migration and...
[Sjl2149@columbia.edu](mailto:Sjl2149@columbia.edu)
African Studies, with a primary field in Government
I am a Postdoctoral Research Scholar and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University, and a Research Affiliate at the Institute for Democracy, Citizenship and Public Policy in Africa at the University of Cape Town. My work lies...
[r.mcdowell@wustl.edu](mailto:r.mcdowell@wustl.edu)
African and African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Robin McDowell is a Ph.D. Candidate in African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She holds an A.M in History from Harvard University, an M.F.A. in Design from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. in Fine Arts from The University...
[### Ernest Julius Mitchell](/people/ernest-julius-mitchell)
[ernest.mitchell@yale.edu](mailto:ernest.mitchell@yale.edu)
African American Studies, with a primary field in Comparative Literature
Ernest Julius Mitchell is Assistant Professor of English and Humanities at Yale University. Faculty Bio
[wmoses@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:wmoses@fas.harvard.edu)
African Studies, with a primary field in Music
Warrick is a doctoral student in the Department of African and African American Studies, with a primary field in Ethnomusicology. His primary research addresses the intersections of race, ethnicity, and popular music in the Western Cape region of South...
[### Ayodeji Ogunnaike](/people/ayodeji-ogunnaike)
African Studies, with a primary field in Religion
Ayodeji Ogunnaike is a doctoral student in the Department of African and African American Studies with a primary field in religion. He received his Bachelor's degree in African Studies and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard College in...
[### Chrystel Oloukoï](/people/chrystel-olouko%C3%AF)
African and African-American Studies with a primary field in Social Anthropology and secondary fields in Critical Media Practice and Women Gender and Sexuality
Chrystel Oloukoï is a PhD candidate in African and African American Studies at Harvard University, with concentrations in Social Anthropology, Critical Media Practice and Women Gender and Sexuality, as well as a predoctoral fellow at the Carter G. Woodson...
[### Nicholas Paskert](/people/nicholas-paskert)
[npaskert@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:npaskert@fas.harvard.edu)
African American Studies, with a primary field in History
Nicholas is a doctoral candidate in African American Studies with a primary concentration in History. His research focuses on slavery, urbanization and the built environment in the Black Atlantic world. Currently he is working on a history of urban slave...
[serenashah@college.harvard.edu](mailto:serenashah@college.harvard.edu)
Undergraduate
Serena Shah '21 is a junior in Quincy House jointly concentrating in Classics and African American Studies. Her independent research explores the historical and cultural reasons behind the far-reaching circulation of Graeco-Roman names like Marcus, Julius...
[ktervala@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:ktervala@fas.harvard.edu)
African Studies, with a primary field in History of Art and Architecture
Kevin Tervala is Associate Curator of African Art and Department Head for the Arts of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific Islands (AAAPI) at The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA). He arrived at the BMA in 2015 as AAAPI’s Curatorial Fellow and assumed...
## Administration
[eli\_bernhardt@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:eli_bernhardt@fas.harvard.edu)
Coordinator of Academic Affairs and Communications
Assistant to the Chair
In Office: Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays Eli assists with faculty searches and reviews, updates the website, assists the department's chair, and circulates news through the department's mailing lists and newsletter. Pronouns: they/them/theirs
[### Bojana Coulibaly](/people/bojana-coulibaly)
[bojana\_coulibaly@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:bojana_coulibaly@fas.harvard.edu)
African Language Program Manager
[cdmartin@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:cdmartin@fas.harvard.edu)
Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Carla D. Martin is a Lecturer and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies in African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She has published in academic journals ranging from Management Information Systems Quarterly, Social Dynamics...
[### Keirsten Melbourne](/people/keirsten-melbourne)
[keirsten\_melbourne@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:keirsten_melbourne@fas.harvard.edu)
Graduate & Undergraduate Coordinator
In Office Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays
[### Giovanna Micconi, Ph.D.](/people/giovanna-micconi-phd)
[micconi@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:micconi@fas.harvard.edu)
Director of Administration and Operations
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
[### Giancarlos Troncoso](/people/giancarlos-troncoso)
[troncoso@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:troncoso@fas.harvard.edu)
Finance Associate I and Office Coordinator
Days in Office: Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays
## Emeriti
[robert.bates.harvard.edu@gmail.com](mailto:robert.bates.harvard.edu@gmail.com)
Eaton Professor of the Science of Government and Professor of African and African American Studies
Robert H. Bates is Eaton Professor of the Science of Government at Harvard University. His research focuses on the political economy of development, particularly in Africa, and on violence and state failure. Bates has conducted field work in Zambia, Sudan...
[jeancomaroff@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:jeancomaroff@fas.harvard.edu)
Alfred North Whitehead Professor of African and African American Studies and of Anthropology
Oppenheimer Fellow in African Studies
Jean Comaroff was educated at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Economics. After a spell as research fellow in medical Anthropology at the University of Manchester, she moved to the University of Chicago, where she was remained until...
[bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:bjeyifo@fas.harvard.edu)
Professor of African and African American Studies and of Comparative Literature
Scholarly and Professional Interests: African and Caribbean 'Anglophone' literatures; theatrical theory and dramatic literature, Western and non-Western; comparative African and Afro-American critical thought; Marxist literary and cultural theory...
[### Ousmane Oumar Kane](/people/ousmane-oumar-kane)
[andovercswrfasupport@hds.harvard.edu](mailto:andovercswrfasupport@hds.harvard.edu)
Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society
Professor of African and African American Studies
Denominational Counselor to Muslim Students
Ousmane Kane, a scholar of Islamic studies and comparative and Islamic politics, joined Harvard Divinity School in July 2012 as the first Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Contemporary Islamic Religion and Society at HDS. Since 2002, he was an...
[imonson@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:imonson@fas.harvard.edu)
Quincy Jones Professor of African-American Music, supported by the Time Warner Endowment; Professor of African and African American Studies
Mather House SCR Associate Member
Ethnomusicology, Department Chair 2019-2022
Ingrid Monson is Quincy Jones Professor of African American music, supported by the Time Warner Endowment. She is a noted jazz scholar and ethnomusicologist with a lifelong interest in the relationships among music, race, aesthetics and politics. Her book...
[### Marcyliena Morgan](/people/marcyliena-morgan)
[mmorgan@fas.harvard.edu](mailto: mmorgan@fas.harvard.edu)
Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences
Professor of African and African American Studies
Executive Director of the HipHop Archive and Research Institute; Director of Graduate Studies
Marcyliena Morgan is the Ernest E. Monrad Professor of the Social Sciences, Professor in the Department of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and the Executive Director of the Hiphop Archive. Professor Morgan earned both her B.A...
[### Kay Kaufman Shelemay](/people/kay-kaufman-shelemay)
[shelemay@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:shelemay@fas.harvard.edu)
G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music and Professor of African and African American Studies
Mather House SCR Associate Member
Kay Kaufman Shelemay is the G. Gordon Watts Professor of Music at Harvard University and a former Chair of the Department of Music. An ethnomusicologist specializing in musics of Africa, the Middle East, and the urban United States, she received her Ph.D...
[sollors@fas.harvard.edu](mailto:sollors@fas.harvard.edu)
Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Professor of English Literature and Professor of African and African American Studies
Associate of Mather House
Werner Sollors earned his doctorate from the Freie Universität Berlin and holds the Henry B. and Anne M. Cabot Chair as Professor of English and Professor of African-American Studies at Harvard University, having joined the faculty in 1983. He served as...
[### William Julius Wilson](/people/william-julius-wilson)
[bill\_wilson@harvard.edu](mailto:bill_wilson@harvard.edu)
Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor
William Julius Wilson is Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University. He is one of only 20 University Professors, the highest professional distinction for a Harvard faculty member. After receiving the Ph.D. from Washington...