Faculty

Randolph Quaye
Director, Black World Studies Program
B.A. Ghana
Ph.D. Northeastern University

His expertise lies in the sociology of health and illness, African development and social conditions in the African American community. Quaye is the author of Underdevelopment and Health Care in Africa and African Americans' Health Care Practices, Perspectives and Needs.

He has worked with Swedish scientists in examining the impact of economic incentives on Swedish physicians' practice behavior. He has an international reputation developing exchange/term abroad programs, having recently developed and directed study abroad programs to Kenya and Zimbabwe. Quaye is completing a book manuscript examining the relationship between the State and the Medical Profession in Sweden. He was a recipient of the TEW Presidential Discretionary Fund. Professor Quaye teaches The Introduction to Black World Studies; Black Identity; Black Family; Contemporary Africa in Focus.

Judylyn S. Ryan, Ph.D.
M.A. and Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
A.B., Georgetown University

Professor Ryan is an interdisciplinary scholar who teaches courses on (African) American literature, Black feminist theory, Black women's literature and cinema, African diaspora literatures and cinema, and the Freshman Writing Seminar. Her other research interests are cultural and critical race theory, narrative theory, Toni Morrison, and African diaspora religions. Professor Ryan has been a visiting lecturer and research associate in the Women's Studies in Religion Program in the Divinity School at Harvard University, and has held a Ford postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for the Study of Black Literature and Culture at the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently at work on two book projects. The first combines theoretical analyses with pedagogical models and is titled Approaches to Teaching Black Women's Cinema. The other combines bio-medical approaches to the study of diseases with methodologies derived from critical race theory and disability studies to develop and propose new models for understanding racism and race, and is titled The Epidemiology of Racism: Re-framing the Discourse on Race in the Age of Obama. She is the volume editor for (and contributor to) Twenty-first Century Readings of Toni Morrison's Later Novels (forthcoming from Continuum Press in the Contemporary North American Fiction series).

Chukwuemeka Aniagolu
B.A. in Political Science, Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio
M.A., The Ohio State University

Professor Aniagolu teaches courses in African and African-American History and Politics. He is the author of Black Mustard Seed, African Glimpses, Ozo: A Story of an African Knighthood and a forthcoming book.

Umbisa Kendeli Gusa
B.A., Anthropology, State University of New York College at Buffalo
M.A., Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio

Certified Swahili language teacher, The Ohio State University. Certified Swahili Language Tester, Foreign Service Institute and Princeton University. Professor Gusa currently teaches Swahili. In the past he has taught and directed Swahili language programs with the United States Peace Corps, Department of Defense summer language Institute, Howard University, Washington, D.C., and taught Arabic and Swahili languages with the Columbus Public Schools, and The Ohio State University.

Ali Skandor
Diploma, Leakey Memorial Institute, Kenya

Professor Skandor teaches courses in Swahili. This past summer, under the Office of the University of Chaplain, Professor Skandor and Paula Travis, BWS Office Manager, directed the South African Mission trip. Together with six OWU students they volunteered at an orphanage home in Johannesburg.

Emmanuel K. Twesigye
Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Professor Twesigye teaches courses in African traditional religion and Western culture. He is also a professor in the religion department. Over the summer, Professor Twesigye traveled to Uganda and worked on his forthcoming book, Religion, Politics and Cults. He also published a review article which appeared in the Journal of Asian and African Studies. The article reviews Samule Oluoch Imbo's book on Oral Traditions as Philosophy: Okot p' Bitek's Legacy for African Philosophy, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.

Disciplinary Faculty Offering Black World Studies Courses

• Michael Esler – Politics and Government
• Richard Fusch – Geology and Geography
• Nancy Gamso – Music
• Mary Howard – Sociology/Anthropology
• Akbar Mahdi – Sociology/Anthropology
• Joan McLean – Politics and Government
• Carl Pinkele – Politics and Government
• James Peoples – Sociology/Anthropology
• Timothy J.Roden – Music
• Jan Smith – Sociology/Anthropology

* Note: You will need the free Adobe Reader software to view/print PDF files. Click the "Get Adobe Reader" icon to begin the download process.