Welcome to Our Newest Colleagues Fall 2023
Bayyinah S. Jeffries, associate professor in the Department of Africana Studies, has research and teaching interests that comprise a range of historical topics and themes including 20th century African American history, Black student movements, Black nationalism and self-determination, race relations, Black women’s history, race and the U.S. Constitution, and comparative Black histories. Jeffries is the author of several publications, including “The Challenge of Race and Religion in the United States: From Cassius Clay to Muhammad Ali” in Africana Cultural Memory, “Race Relations in Higher Education: The Case of the OSU 34,” in the Journal of Ohio Valley History, “Black Religion and Black Power: The Nation of Islam’s Internationalism,” in Genealogy Special Issue Global Black Movements, “Raising Her Voice:’ Writings By, For & About Women in Muhammad Speaks Newspaper, 1961-1975,” in African American Consciousness: Past & Present, and her book, A Nation Can Rise No Higher Than Its Women: Black Muslim Women in the Movement for Black Self Determination with Lexington, and other works.
Walter R. Isaac, lecturer in the Department of Africana Studies, is a scholar, public intellectual, and African American rabbi of Palestinian descent. He has for many years worked as a mentor and direct advocate for LGBTQ teens, school-age boys of color, Jewish youth, and victims of urban violence. He is a specialist in intercultural student affairs and university campus dialogue, particularly on issues of systemic racism, sex/gender discrimination, and the politics of Israel/Palestine. A Yale University graduate, Rabbi Isaac was formerly a research fellow in Africana Studies at Brown University, as well as the program director for Temple University’s Institute for the Study of Race and Social Thought. His writings all stem from womanist philosophical approaches to the intersection of Africana studies and global Jewish studies. His research has recently focused on the theoretical and historical development of modern democracy from among American Hebrew communities of color. Before joining the department of Africana Studies, Rabbi Isaac co-directed a $250K NEH grant-funded project on Gullah/Geechee contributions to American democracy. He is a member of many professional organizations and the current President of the Afro-Jewish Studies Association. Currently, he is completing a two-part, monograph on the intersection of German-Jewish phenomenologist, Max Scheler’s objective realism with Martin L. King Jr.’s philosophy of humanistic science. Some of his many articles and monographs can be found in publications such as Contending Modernities, Violence in American Society, the Journal of the Middle East and Africa, Black Existentialism, and a seminal article on Afro-Jewish Studies in the Blackwell Companion to African-American Studies.