Faculty News & Updates, Fall 2019

November 4, 2019

Heads, directors, and chairpersons of Black Studies programs in the Southeastern Conference held their third annual meeting at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, May 18-19, 2018.

Hosted by Valinda Littlefield, professor of history and director of African American Studies at USC, representatives from the Universities of Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, and Auburn attended. Items on the agenda included growth from program to department, faculty hiring, tenure, student recruitment, diversity office, establishing alliances among programs, and study abroad.

Professor Bertin Louis presented at the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS), Black Internationalism—Then and Now, March 22-23, 2019. The fourth annual conference took place at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Africana Studies Executive Committee

• Dawn Duke dduke1@utk.edu Chair, Africana Studies, Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
• Katherine Chiles kchiles1@utk.edu, Vice Chair, Africana Studies, Associate Professor, English
• Amadou Sall asall@utk.edu, Vice Chair, Africana Studies and Lecturer

Africana Studies Core Faculty

• Robert Bland, rbland4@utk.edu, Africana Studies, History
• Shaneda Destine, sdestine@utk.edu, Africana Studies, Sociology
• Melissa Hargrove, mhargrov@utk.edu, Africana Studies
• Darrell Kefentse, dkefents@utk.edu, Africana Studies
• Jakia Marie, jmaria@utk.edu, Africana Studies
• Gichingiri Ndigirigi, jndigiri@utk.edu, Africana Studies, English
• Amadou Sall asall@utk.edu, Africana Studies

Africana Studies Advisory Board Members

• Derek Alderman, dalderma@utk.edu, UT Department of Geography
• Katherine Chiles, kchiles1@utk.edu, UT Department of English
• Chonika Coleman-King, ccolem21@utk.edu, UT Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education
• Mark Dean, markdean@utk.edu, UT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
• Rosalind Hackett, rhackett@utk.edu, UT Department of Religious Studies
• Barbara Heath, bheath2@utk.edu, UT Department of Anthropology
• Tricia Hepner, thepher@utk.edu, UT Department of Anthropology
• Carolyn Hodges, chodges@utk.edu
• Corey Hodge, chodges8@vols.utk.edu
• Doug Minter, dminter@knoxvillechamber.com
• Althea Murphy-Price, amurph21@utk.edu, UT School of Art, Printmaking
• Marianne Wanamaker, wanamaker@utk.edu, UT Department of Economics
• Courtney Wright, cwright@utk.edu, UT Department of Communication Studies

Awards and Honors, Fall 2019

November 4, 2019

The following faculty and students in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, received awards or special recognition this semester. Here are notes and images.

Program News & Updates, Fall 2019

November 4, 2019

Service Learning in South Africa

This year’s study abroad took place during the summer mini-term. As usual, it garnered life-changing experiences for those in attendance. Next year will be even better. Contact Amadou Sall at asall@utk.edu for additional information.

Africana Studies Visiting Lecturer

Kimberly Eison Simmons, associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina and interim director at the Institute for African American Research, visited UT thanks to the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Visiting Faculty Travel Grant Program.

In her lecture, Professor Simmons explored the natural hair movement taking place in the Dominican Republic where women view natural hair as a sign of beauty, resistance, and personal expression of Afro Dominican-ness. Having straight hair is often the norm and is promoted in print and television media as the standard of beauty and definition of what is socially acceptable in Dominican society. This is changing as the natural hair movement gains momentum in the Dominican Republic and represents a significant and symbolic shift signaling changing views of Afro-Dominican identity where hair straightening has served as a symbolic erasure of African ancestry. Her lecture highlights the ways in which Dominican hair stylists, activists, and others organize around and embrace natural hair as an expression of Blackness and belonging to a larger African diaspora community.

Here in the United States, embracing curls, natural hair, and the Afro, is an ongoing reconstruction of racial identity in relationship to hair. The stereotypical views associated with afros, braids, dreads, and just natural curly hair continue to cause controversy for some. Simmons encourages us to remove the historical negativity concerning natural hair and simply embrace the beauty.

Truth Without Tears

Earlier this year, Professor Carolyn R. Hodges and Professor Olga M. Welch, former dean of the School of Education at Duquesne University, presented a lecture to graduate students about shared experiences based on their new book, Truth Without Tears: African American Women Deans Share Lessons in Leadership.

The book is a timely and insightful portrait of Black women leaders in American colleges and universities. As former deans, Hodges and Welch draw extensively on their experience as African American women to account for both the challenges and opportunities facing women of color in educational leadership positions. A nuanced and complex depiction of successful leadership, Truth Without Tears is a valuable resource for current and aspiring higher education leaders.

Concerning the Diaspora

Kristen Block, associate professor in the UT Department of History, presented “Countering Fears of Corruption: ‘Leprosy’ and Healing in the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora of the 18th Century” as part of the fall 2018 symposium speaker series.

A historian of the interactions between Africa, Europe, and the Americas (ca. 1492-1833), Block writes about the Caribbean, arguably the epicenter of colonial competition in the early modern Americas. Her research dwells on how Caribbean residents defined disease, contagion, and how conflict and hybridity affected their attempts at healing. Professor Block pushes the limits of conventional historical methods to capture the emotions and voices of historical subjects, many of them marginalized because of their sex, class, or enslaved status.

Gustavo de Oliveira Bicalho, Fulbright visiting researcher, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, presented “Freedom Authors of the African Diaspora in the Americas” during the spring 2019 lecture series.

What we understand today by the universalized concept of freedom was widely shaped by the memories of those who lived through the trauma of slavery while fighting for individual and collective emancipation. The African-American tradition of the so-called slave narratives tell only a part of this transnational struggle.In his presentation, Bicalho drew on the theme of freedom through the individual biographies and texts of the Afro-Brazilian writer Luiz Gama and the transatlantic figure of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, both of whom became involved with local abolitionists while developing their own expanded ideals of liberty and racial equality. Bicalho showed how they became authors of their own liberated lives by mobilizing a network of patronages and influences, while advancing their own aspirations, desires, and worldview.

Making a Lasting Impact

November 4, 2019

Roddy Rosemond Denor is a graduating senior and majoring in political science and sociology with a minor in Africana Studies. His future plans include continuing to further his education with acquiring a master’s degree in sociology and working.

As an Africana Studies minor, his Haitian background, along with the gained knowledge concerning the diaspora, will benefit him in the work that he will pursue. Roddy is interested in poverty and inequality. He wants to help immigrants and low-income residents on improving their lives. Although he realizes that this will be a journey, he thinks this is how he can make a lasting impact in the lives of the have-nots.

Roddy thinks that as Martin Luther King said once: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘what are you doing for others?'” He thinks the best way to tackle this question is by changing the odds that are against one’s circumstances.

Focus on Education and Community Action

November 4, 2019

Bertram Welton Pride II is a graduating senior born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. Welton is majoring in marketing and minoring in Africana Studies.

On campus, he is heavily involved with multiple organizations with many leadership roles. Currently, he is a member of the Chancellor’s appointed Commission for Blacks, which advises university programs and policies as they relate to Black students, faculty, and staff. He is also a student recruiter for the Minority Enhancement for the University of Tennessee (ME4UT), works with the College of Education as an art education marketing and promotions assistant, a Diversity Advancement Program liaison, a Haslam College of Business Ambassador, and the former vice president of marketing for Alpha Kappa Psi, professional business fraternity.

Professionally, Welton has held four internship positions – one every summer since his freshman year and two simultaneously in 2018. At each company, he was one of, if not the first, African-American to hold an intern position in each field. He aspires to continue his education through a master’s program in the near future, relating to education and community action, along with continuing his passion of diversity and inclusion every step of the way.

Post-graduation, Welton has secured a full-time offer with Louisiana-Pacific in Nashville, working with their sales impact program, and eventual marketing and branding strategy.

Hodges Receives African American Hall of Fame Award

November 3, 2019

Since arriving at UT in 1982, Carolyn Hodges, a professor of German, has time and again proven her commitment and dedication to UT. After more than a decade in administration, serving as vice provost and dean of the Graduate School, Hodges became chair of the Africana Studies program in 2016. Under her leadership, the program now has more than 100 majors and minors, and the graduate certificate program is attracting talented PhD candidates. She helped get approval to hire additional tenure-line joint faculty and lecturers, infusing new life into the department and adding diverse personnel to the university’s ranks. Hodges has supported faculty members’ outreach endeavors and approved experiential learning as a component of faculty-led summer study abroad programs to Senegal and South Africa. Hodges’s own academic interests are in Afro-German literature and legacy, and under her guidance, the Africana Studies program has expanded its perception of Africa and its diaspora by becoming more globally inclusive

In our last newsletter, Professor Carolyn Hodges wrote that it has been a pleasure to serve as chair of the Africana Studies program. In fact, is has been an honor to have her as chair and it gives us faculty, staff, and students even more of a reason to be a part of the program. Just this past year, undergraduate and graduate students remarked on how grateful they were to have received knowledge from her that will impact them for the rest of their lives. The program has grown immensely under her leadership with increased majors and minors, as well as the graduate certificate program.

Since beginning her career at UT in 1982, Professor Hodges has broken barriers not only for African-American women, but all women.

Professor Hodges is the wife of Professor Emeritus John O. Hodges, Department of Religious Studies and past chair of Africana Studies. All of us in the Africana Studies are grateful to both of you. Congratulations, Professor Hodges on your 2019 African-American Hall of Fame Award.