Graduate Students

Nana is a second year Ph.D. student in African American and African Diaspora Studies with an outside minor in African Studies. She is interested in cross cultural studies of Africa American and African Diaspora literature, representation of women in popular music, black religious music, black women musicians and diet/keeping in shape.

Ama is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology with an outside minor in African Studies. Her research interests include indigenous religion in Ghana, African American alternative religious practice, the anthropology of religion, African American heritage identity, and religious pluralism in Africa.

Adam is a second year student in the African Studies M.A. program as well as the MLS program in Library and Information Science through the School of Library and Information Science. He is interested in librarianship in East Africa.

Jennie is a third year graduate student in the African Studies M.A. program as well as the MPA program in Public and Environmental Affairs through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Jennie's research includes the topics of democratization, political inclusion and identity politics in post-colonial East Africa; indigenous rights; and the Maasai of Kenya.

Abdoul is a second year student in the African Studies M.A. program. Abdoul's research focuses on the new Malian Family Law.

Cari is a second year Ph.D. student in Ethnomusicology. She is interested in identity; immigration and diaspora, especially African Canadian; music and religion/religious change; and West Africa, specifically Burkina Faso.

Candice is a third year Ph.D. student in Education Policy Studies and International Comparative Education. She researches internationalization of higher education, specifically the formation of Global North-South academic partnerships. Of particular interest to Candice are partnerships between the universities in Senegal and universities in the United States.

Abbie is a sixth year Ph.D. candidate in African Linguistics. She is researching an endangered, isolate language spoken in Mali.

Genevieve is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of the History of Art. Her research interests include textiles in Burkina Faso, specifically faso dan fani of the Marka; fair trade, artists' cooperatives, NGOs and the art market; sustainability and the environmental impact of art in West Africa; and African influences on American art and craft. Genevieve was a Fulbright Hays Scholar for the academic year 2009-2010.

Jessica is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of the History of Art with an outside minor in African Studies. Her research interests include Malian Art (Dogon Visual Art, Site-Specific Performance and Installations), African Women's Art (Dogon Ceramic Art, Gender Theory), Contemporary African Art (Dogon Artists Exhibiting Works Abroad), African Memorials and Symbolic Landscapes (Post-Apartheid and Post-Genocide Memorials, Violence and Memory in Art, Space/Place Theory), and Performing with Cloth: Africa, Oceania and Mesoamerica. Jessica was a Fulbright Hays Scholar for the academic year 2010-2011.

Stephanie is a first year student in the African Studies M.A. program as well as the MPA program in Public and Environmental Affairs through the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Her research interests are in water policy and drinking water sanitation in Africa.

Sarah is a third year student in the African Studies M.A. program as well as the MLS program in Library and Information Science through the School of Library and Information Science. She is interested in librarianship and the politics of African archives, especially related to archiving African materials outside of the continent at institutions such as the Indiana University Liberian Collections.

Ammina is a Ph.D. candidate in Mass Communication through the School of Journalism with an outside minor in African Studies. Ammina's research interests focus on issues related to health, gender, technology and religion that are situated within the contexts of global communication, journalism and media studies in Africa.

Libby is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology. Her research interests are HIV/AIDS, women, marriage, sexuality, and Kenya.

Adrien is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature. He is interested in African literature and cinema, particularly in regard to the representations of sites of encounter, change, and accommodation in African literature.

Brittany is a second year Ph.D. student in the Department of the History of Art with an outside minor in African Studies. Her research interests include the visual culture of northern Ghana, specifically embellished architecture in Navrongo and Sirigu. She plans to begin fieldwork in summer 2012.

Janeke is a second year M.A. student in the Department of History with a focus in African History. She is interested in race and identity in South Africa, namely "coloured" identity in 20th century Pretoria.

Katherine is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology with an outside minor in African Studies. She is interested in Mauritania, gender, work, dress, exchange, material culture, and Islam.