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Research Opportunities

The Department of African American Studies provides important research opportunities to its students, faculty and for the larger community people and organizations interested in joint projects that would benefit our society. The African American Studies faculty submits external and internal research funding applications, and work towards using research to enhance the understanding of the African, African American and the African Diaspora people and society within our global reality.

Among the department's current plans are its recently submitted proposal to the Illinois Department of Public Health--HIV/AIDS Section--on introducing workshops, seminars and courses targeting Black young men and women on the HIV/AIDS crisis and on making young people important agents in the fight against the continued spread of HIV/AIDS in our communities.

Another recent grant application is the Fulbright-Hays grant proposal submitted to the Federal Department of Education, to take selected students and faculty and K-12 teachers from western Illinois region to Ghana, West Africa, as part of its area studies, languages and cultural plurality programs.

The WIU's African American Studies department's vision is to lead in using research to benefit the grassroots, especially on issues relevant to the regeneration of the African, the African American and the African Diaspora communities. As a community-oriented department, the department is eager to bring the research agenda of higher education to helping the common person and the downtrodden communities of our world.

Faculty Research and Publications

Faculty members in the WIU's Department of African American Studies have many research interests and have published in many areas of local, national and international relevance. From studies about Black men, the education of the Black women, African thoughts, folklore and performance, Womenist theory and perspectives, postcolonial theory and the Africana world, to several other areas of interest.

The following is an example of specific faculty's interests:

Safoura Boukar
American Studies/Women Studies, Women of African Descent Experiences, Feminist and Womanist Theories, Anglophone and Francophone African Studies and International Institutions.
Abdul Salau
Social and Political thought; Social Issues and Problems; and Ancient Egypt and Africa
Alphonso Simpson
African American Music; Black Popular Culture; and Multicultural Studies.
Audrey Watkins
Education of Africans in Diaspora; Social Justice Education; Transnationalism of Caribbean Women; Christian Values in Schooling and Education; and Education of Women of Color.
Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah
African Performance; Black Identity; Islam and Africanity; The Black Writer.
Nancy Kwong Johnson
Negritude, Métis sage, and identity politics in the African Diaspora; the politics of language, culture, and assimilation in Francophone Africa; the impact of slavery on the U.S. Constitution; the impact of presidential elections on the African-American community; Black feminism; and the divide between First and Third World feminisms.

Among most recent faculty publications include Professor Simpson's "When Culture Sings: the Teaching and Learning Methodologies of Afro-American children in the Educational and Religious Setting ..." (2004); Professor Watkins's "Education From All of Life for All of Life: Getting an Education at Home--Precept on Precept, Line on Line" (2004); Professor Na'Allah's poetry volume, "Ahmadu Fulani: African Poetry" (2004); and Professor Boukari's "How the politics of dependency and globalization widened the gap between rich and poor: The Case of Togolese Women” (2003).

Faculty continue to work on obtaining funding for research work focusing locally here in the United States and on Jamaica, Togo and Nigeria, among other places of the Africana world.

Teacher and StudentUndergraduate Research

The Department strongly encourages undergraduate and graduate research and has a policy of encouraging AAS faculty to collaborate with students on research, scholarly presentations and community development projects. The department encourages undergraduate students to apply for the College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research awards. The department has developed a policy of encouraging every faculty member to take at least one AAS student to a national conference once a year. The department supports such ventures within its available resources.

Student-Faculty Collaborative Research

Among the most recent student-faculty collaborations was a joint interview of African-Canadian poet and playwright, George Elliott Clarke, Canada's Governor General award winner, by Professor Abdul-Rasheed Na'Allah and Nicole Henry, currently submitted with a critical introduction for publication.

Dr. Watkins and Sandra Long also recently participated in the WIU Undergraduate Research Exhibition Aprill 22, 2005, presenting their joint research on "Socialization and the Criminal Justice System.

Other Department Research & Publications

Faculty members continue to present scholarly papers in conferences around the world and engage in professional dialogues in local communities, churches, Black neighborhoods in Western Illinois region and across the state of Illinois, with the vision of directly impacting positively on the community and achieve the department's vision of continually bringing Higher education research to addressing the problems of the common person and the downtrodden community, and helping to give definition to, and enhance the understanding of, the nature, identity and aspirations of the people and community of Africa and the African Diaspora in the global society.