KU AFRICANIST FACULTY

Index of biographies by last name: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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Elizabeth MacGonagle
Assistant Professor/ History and African & African American Studies; at KU since 2001
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. Michigan State, 2002
M.A. Michigan State, 1996
B.A. Trinity College, CT, 1990
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
African history and Comparative Black history with interests in social and cultural history and gender history.
FIELD RESEARCH EXPERIENCE:
Prof. MacGonagle's current research draws on African oral histories, archival documents and material culture to examine the shaping of identities over several centuries in the Ndau region of eastern Zimbabwe and central Mozambique. In 1998-1999 she interviewed Ndau elders throughout the region and consulted archives in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Portugal. In addition to fieldwork in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, she has also spent time in South Africa, Swaziland, Kenya and Zanzibar.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Her book manuscript, Crafting Identity in Zimbabwe and Mozambique: A History of the Ndau, is under review this year. An article on using early Portuguese documents as historical sources, "Mightier than the Sword: The Portuguese Pen in Ndau History," was published in History in Africa in 2001.
Her next research project will examine the politics and power of ethnic awareness in southeast Africa during the twentieth century.
In a collaborative project with Ken Lohrentz she created a website in 2003 to provide context for 21 digitized pamphlets of Nigerian popular literature from the 1960's. (www.ku.edu/~onitsha)
COURSES TAUGHT AT KU:
Sexuality and Gender in African History
Historical Methods
Introduction to African History
Modern African History
Graduate Colloquium on African History in Global Perspective
Senior Seminar in African Social and Political Development
LANGUAGES:
English, Portuguese and Ndau, a dialect of Shona
DISTINCTIONS:
Fulbright Scholar Program, Lecturing Award, University of Iceland, 2004
Digital Library Initiative Development Grant, University of Kansas, 2003
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation research Award, 1998
Vice-President of the Lusophone African Studies Organization (LAÇO), 2001-2005
Executive Committee Member of the Mid-America Alliance for African Studies, 2003-2005

Beverly Mack
Tenured Associate Professor, African and African American Studies, at KU since 1993
EDUCATION:
Ph.D. African Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1981
M.A. African Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1978
B.A. English/Anthropology, University of Connecticut, 1973
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
African Muslim women's literature and culture.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Muslim Women Sing: Hausa Popular Song, Indiana University Press, 2004.
"Muslim Women's Educational Activities the Maghreb: Investigating and Redefining Scholarship." Forthcoming, The Maghreb Review, February 2004.
"Nana Asma'u (1793-1864), Muslim woman Scholar" for the website "Women in World History" (http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/wwhcasestudies.html), History Department, George Mason University, Kelly Schrum et al. February 2004.
"Unpacking Evidence: Personal Narratives" for the website "World History Matters" (http://chnm.gmu.edu/worldhistorysources/unpacking/acctsmain.html), History Department, George Mason University, Kelly Schrum et al. September 2003.
"Lindsey Collen's The Rape of Sita." In African Novels in the Classroom Ed. Jean Hay. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Press, 2000, pp. 75-84.
One Woman's Jihad: Nana Asma'u, Scholar and Scribe (with Jean Boyd). Indiana University Press, 2000.
COURSES TAUGHT AT KU:
Islamic Literature
Women and Islam
Muslim Women's (Auto)biography
Southern African Literature
Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced, and Intensive Hausa courses
Hausa Culture
African Oral Narrative
LANGUAGES:
English, native fluency; Hausa, fluent speaking, reading, writing; Krio, competent speaking; French, intermediate speaking, reading, writing; Arabic, beginning speaking, reading, writing
DISTINCTIONS:
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship 2001
KU Graduate Research Fund Grant 2001
Carnegie Corporation International Research Fellowship 2000
African Studies Association Text and Translation Book Award 2000
Mortar Board Outstanding Educator Award 1999
Phi Beta Delta member 1998
KU Graduate Research Fund Grant 1997

Saadia Malik
Adjunct Professor, School of Journalism
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., Ohio University, 2003
M.A., Ohio University, 1999
M.A., Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, Netherlands, 1995
B.A., University of Khartoum, Sudan, 1992
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Muslim Women's Issues, Media Representation of Islam
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Displacement as Discourse, Irinkerindo: A Journal of African Migration. Issue 2, ISSN # 1540-7497, December 2003 Issue
Shi’a Religious practices in Bahrain, in the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices Volume 1 ("Religions of the World"), published by the Gale Group Publishers, 2004.2 -- December 2003 Issue 2 -- December 2003
The Representation of African and Middle Eastern Women in Time and Newsweek (1930 – 1998), working paper, AEJMC (forthcoming 2006)
Globalization, Communication, and Hybridity: The Ethnography of Sudanese Women Performers (book under review by Africa World Press)
Reorienting Sexuality: Lessons from the Study of Sexuality in the Middle East and North Africa, Social Analysis (Forthcoming 2006)
COURSES TAUGHT AT KU:
The Ethics of Media, Advanced Arabic and Culture
LANGUAGES:
English, Arabic (classical, modern standard, and Sudanese and Egyptian dialects)
DISTINCTIONS:
Dissertation Fund on African Media, Center for International Studies, Ohio University.
Graduate scholarship, School of Telecommunication, Ohio University.

Michelle McKinley
Visiting Associate Professor, Law School
EDUCATION:
J.D. Harvard Law School, cum laude, 1995.
M.Phil. Social Anthropology, 1988, Oxford University (advisers: Godfrey Lienhardt, Terence Ranger, Wendy James).
Wellesley College, B.A. cum laude, Internatinal/Third World Studies, 1985.
COURSES TAUGHT AT KU:
Public International Law
Human Rights Law
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Her current research project is an in-depth analysis of divorce petitions among the Afro-Peruvian population during the colonial period until the 1850's. While most studies have focused on divorce petitions between Spanish men and Afro-Peruvian women based on racial inequality, she is specifically interested in petitions for divorce and annulment based on self-perceptions of racial inequality between couples who were classified according to stratified ethnic categories of mulattos, zambos, pardos, mestizos, quadroons, and quinteroons under Spanish colonial law. She has also begun to examine petitions for annulment between free blacks and mulattos during the colonial period prior tothe War of Independence.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
LANGUAGES:
English, Fluent in Spanish, Reading Knowledge of French & Portugese
DISTINCTIVES:
Women's Refugee Project, Cambridge, MA: 1993. Represented womwn form from Rwanda and Haiti seeking political asylum due to gender-based persecution committed against women in their home countries. Conducted client interviews. researched practices of rape and endemic domestice violence as means of political persecution against women.

Paul Mirecki
Associate Professor and Chair, Religious Studies Department
EDUCATION:
Th.D., Harvard University, 1986
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Ancient Mediterranean Religions, and Ancient Egyptian Papyri in Coptic and Middle Egyptian.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
"A Seventh-Century Coptic Limestone in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford"
"Evangelion-Incipits Amulets in Greek and Coptic: Towards a Typology"
"The Coptic Wizard's Hoard"
"The Coptic Manichaean Synaxeis Codex: Codicology and Intertextuality"
"A Recently Identified Scroll of the Egyptian Amduat (ca. 950 BCE) in the University of Kansas Collection"
COURSES TAUGHT AT KU:
Understanding the Bible
Early Christian Literature (Greek and Coptic Papyri)
Ancient Egyptian Culture and Religion
Middle Egyptian Language (hieroglyphs)
Coptic Language
LANGUAGES:
English, reading knowledge of French, German, ancient Greek, ancient Egyptian in Coptic and Middle Egyptian (hieroglyphs).
DISTINCTIONS:
National Endowment for the Humanities: Summer Stipend.
American Council of Learned Societies: Research & Travel Grant.

Garth Myers
Tenured Associate Professor, AAAS and Department of Geography; at KU since 1995
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., UCLA, 1993
M.A., UCLA, 1986
B. A., (Honors), Bowdoin College, 1984
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
African political and cultural geography, development studies, urban studies, and environmental geography in Africa.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Disposable Cities: Garbage, Governance and Sustainable Development in Urban Africa, 2005, Ashgate Press.
"Four Caveats for Participatory Solid Waste Management in Lusaka, Zambia." Urban Forum 15(2):109-133.
Verandahs of Power: Colonialism and Space in Urban Africa (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003).
"Colonial Geography and Masculinity in Eric Dutton's Kenya Mountain, Gender, Place and Culture 9(1) 2002: 23-38.
"Local Communities and the New Environmental Planning: A Case Study from Zanzibar," Area 34(2) 2002: 1-11.
"Protecting Privacy in Foreign Fields," Geographical Review 91(1-2) 2001: 192-200.
"Introductory Human Geography Textbook Representations of Africa," The Professional Geographer 53(4) 2001: 522-32.
COURSES TAUGHT AT KU:
Environmental Issues in Africa
Africa's Human Geographies
Geography of African Development
Cities and Development
Introduction to Human Geography
Colonialism in Africa
Advanced KiSwahili
LANGUAGES:
English, fluent in KiSwahili, reading knowledge of Frenchand basic Chinyanja..
DISTINCTIONS:
Research Grants from: Fulbright Africa Regional Research Program (2002-3), National Geographic Society Committee on Research and Exploration (1999), National Science Foundation (1999 and 2002), Association of American Geographers (1999), and various internal granting agencies at KU.
Director, US Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs University Affiliation grant for Partnership between the University of Kansas and University of Zambia (2000-2003).
Kemper Foundation Fellowship for Teaching Excellence, 2000.
Teacher Appreciation Award for Graduate Teaching in Geography, KU Center for Teaching Excellence, 1999.
Research in Zanzibar, 1995, 1997, 1999, and 2000; Malawi, 1997; Kenya, 1997; and Zambia, 2000, 2002, and 2003.