Africana Studies

Felicia Denaud is a 2022 graduate of Brown University. Her research revolves around a broad spectrum of intellectual discourse, including 20^th century Black Radical Political Thought, Critical Theory, Theories of Black Feminism, Revolution and Revolt in the Black Diaspora, and Black Women’s Written, Visual, and Performance Art, across the Diaspora. Dr. Denaud is an important addition to the department. A big welcome to Dr. Denaud and her family to Cincinnati and the Department of Africana Studies.  

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Holly Y. McGee, to the Department of Africana Studies. A 2011 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. McGee is an Associate Professor of U.S History, with a minor in African American, South African History, and Women’s Studies. She is the author of Radical Antiapartheid Internationalism and Exile: The Life of Elizabeth Mafeking (Routledge Press, 2019) and One day we are Going Home: The Long Exile of Elizabeth Mafeking (Sentia Publishing, 2020).

Cassandra L. Jones, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and an affiliate faculty member in Film and Media Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies received the Taft Center Research Fellow for 2020-2021. During her fellowship, she will be completing her manuscript, Memory and Liberation in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction, under contract with Ohio State University Press for the New Suns: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Speculative series. The book explores memory and decolonization found in tropes of alien invasion, time travel, and rootworking in the speculative fiction of authors such as Octavia E. Butler, Tananarive Due, and Nnedi Okorafor.  

Edward Wallace, Ph.D. Associate Professor appeared on WCPO TV, Cincinnati, Ohio, where he discussed why Blacks are dying from the Coronavirus at higher rates than whites.

His interview on Emerging Trend: Blacks Are Dying from Coronavirus at Higher Rates appeared in the Loveland Beacon Online Newspaper, http://lovelandbeacon.com/an-emerging-trend-blacks-are-dying- from-coronavirus-at-higher-rates/

In two separate interviews with the Cincinnati Herald, Dr. Wallace discussed why Blacks are more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease making them more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and why he thinks African American Health Disparities will remain post COVID-19. 

Guy-Lucien Whembolua, Ph.D. Associate Professor received the 2020 Excellence in Undergraduate Research Mentoring Award. The award recognizes faculty members for their support and encouragement to students interested in pursuing graduate education. 

Together with Dr. Chism, Mr. Ward, Mrs. Nessa and Mrs. Segovia, Professor Whembolua served as a Panelist for the Webinar on the impact of COVID-19 on Education, Staff, Students and Families organized by the Citizens and Community Creating Change on July 25, 2020.

Nancy Nzobigeza is a 2019 graduate of the University of Cincinnati. She earned a BS in Biological Sciences and two certificates, including a certificate in African studies from the Department of Africana Studies. She will be attending medical school at American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine in fall 2020.