AFRICAN/AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES

FACULTY:

Phillip Bailey (PhD., Univ. of Virginia) is an associate professor of French and chair of the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.  He teaches African and Caribbean writers in his special topics course on Francophone literature, and is proposing a new 3000-level course titled "Cultural Identity in the Post-Colonial French-Speaking World" that included the writings of Mariama Ba (Senegal), Aime Cesaire (Martinique), Patrick Chamoiseau (Matrinique), Maryse Conde (Guadaloupe), and Franz Fanon (Martinique).

Raymond-Jean Frontain (Ph.D., Purdue University), a professor of English, has published two articles on James Baldwin, and twice taught a Major Author course on the writer.  He is currently developing a course on African Drama which would complement the course on Asian Drama that he already teaches.  As Assistant Director of the proposed Humanities and World Cultures Institute, he will be actively involved in organizing cultural activities (such as guest lectures and film discussions) in support of the new program.

Dawn Jakubowski, assistant professor of Philosophy and Religion, received her Ph.D in philosophy from the University of Kansas with a dissertation titled Social Justice and the Ethics of Multiculturalism.  Her research and teaching interests include Feminist Theory and African-American, Social and Political Philosophy.  Her work has appeared in the Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories, and she has made presentations to the Central States Philosophical Association, the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, and the Tenth Conference of Cuban and North American Philosophers and Social Scientists (in Havana, Cuba).  In addition to teaching PHIL 2360 (Gender, Race, and Class Issues), she has developed a new course on African-American Philosophy.

Jackie Lamar (DMA, University of North Texas), is Associate Professor of Music and a practicing jazz musician.  In addition to leading the UCA Jazz Ensemble, she teaches MUS 4301 (Jazz), which is a historical survey of jazz's evolution from African slave songs to the present.

Maurice A. Lee (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin), is Professor of English and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.  The founding editor of the Journal of Caribbean Literature, he is a specialist in Afro-Caribbean as well as African-American culture.  He will teach a course on the Harlem Literary Renaissance, and he will eventually develop and teach a course in Afro-Caribbean Literature.

Randall L. Pouwels received his doctorate in African and Middle Eastern History from the University of California at Los Angeles.  His teaching specialty is in the history of Africa and the Middle East, while his research interests center on the history of Islam in Africa, East African History, and pre-colonial African History.  His publications include Horn and Crescent:  Islam and Islamic Leadership in the Coastal Communities of Fast: Africa, 800-1900 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987); an annotated translation of Abdallah Salih Fasy's Baadbi ya Wanavyuoni wa Marshariki ya Afrika (Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1989); and History of Islam in Africa (Ohio Univ. Press, 2000), as well as numerous articles and reviews.

Michael Schaefer received his doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He has written two books and co-edited a third, and his articles have appeared in Stephen Crane Studies, Georgia Historical Quarterly and War, Literature and the Arts:  An International Journal of the Humanities.  In addition  to leading readings for Honors Degree students in nineteenth and twentieth century American literature by African Americans and women, he taught ENGL 4303 (Race in American Literature) for four semesters at UCA.

Conrad Shumaker received his Ph.D. in English from the University of California , Los Angeles.  He teaches American Literature, World Literature, African/African American Literature, and interdisciplinary honors courses on American literature and culture.  For six years he team-taught a course in "The Cultures of America" with Dr. Patricia Washington McGraw.  He has published articles on American and Native American literature and culture in such journals as American Literature, The New England Quarterly, The Arizona Quarterly, and The Journal of American Culture.