Faculty

The African Studies Program supports students across the university, IU’s community of scholars engaged with Africa and African colleagues, and is a resource for teachers, businesses, and the public.

The Program’s faculty listed below concentrate on providing students with essential language and cultural understanding, as well as teaching undergraduate and graduate courses focused on African Studies as a field of knowledge production. Our outstanding affiliate faculty are specialists in their disciplines, offering breadth and depth of expertise through the more than 250 African Studies courses they offer in the College and IU's professional schools.

Faculty

Tavy Aherne

Associate Director, African Studies Program

FLAS Advisor, African Studies Program

Adjunct faculty, African Studies Program

taherne@indiana.edu
(812) 855-5081
Global and International Studies Building, 3080

Research + Teaching Interests
Fulbhe and Bamana arts, artists and aesthetic systems; African textiles; artists as activists; African film and photography; post-colonial theory; museum studies; teaching pedagogies and research methodologies

Regional Expertise
Ghana; Guinea; Mali; Nigeria; Senegal; Tanzania; Zambia; Zimbabwe

Nana Amoah-Ramey

Assistant Professor, African American and African Diaspora Studies

Assistant Professor, African Studies Program

Assistant Coordinator, African Languages Program

Associate Editor, Africa Today Journal

Akan Language and West African Cultures

Director of Undergraduate Studies, African Studies Program

namoa@indiana.edu
(812) 856-1012
Global and International Studies Building, 3078

Research + Teaching Interests
African American & African Diaspora Literature; African Popular Music and Cultures; Gender Roles and Representations; African Language Pedagogy (Akan/Twi); Globalization and Post Colonialism

Regional Expertise
Ghana; West Africa

John Hanson

Interim Chair, Department of History

Professor, History

Professor, African Studies

jhhanson@indiana.edu
(812) 855-7587
Global and International Studies Building, 3079

Research + Teaching Interests
Religious imagination and social initiatives of Muslims in western Africa; Sufi movements in nineteenth century Mali and Senegal; historical transformations in Africa (pre-colonial and colonial); historical methods

Regional Expertise
Ghana; Senegal; Mali

Alwiya Omar

Clinical Professor, Kiswahili, African Studies Program

African Languages Coordinator, African Studies Program

Director, National African Languages Resource Center (NALRC)

aomar@indiana.edu
(812) 855-3323
Global and International Studies Building, 3076

Research + Teaching Interests
Kiswahili language and culture; pragmatics; second language acquisition

Regional Expertise
Tanzania

Beth Samuelson

Director, African Studies Program

Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), African Studies Program

Associate Professor, Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, School of Education

blsamuel@indiana.edu
(812) 856-8256
Global and International Studies Building, 3082

Research + Teaching Interests
language awareness and the flows of English literacy practices across global boundaries; literacy theory; language learning and cross-cultural experience in non-Western contexts

Regional Expertise
Democratic Republic of Congo; Rwanda

Kazeem Sanuth

Associate Director, National African Languages Resource Center

Adjunct Lecturer, African Studies Program

ksanuth@iu.edu
(812) 855-3141
Global and International Studies Building, 3077

Research + Teaching Interests
social, cultural, and linguistic implications of language study abroad in a multilingual West African setting. Teaching: courses focused Africa and the Global, including ex., Africa's power, agency, and influence in global affairs and the overall world systems, and African multilingualism and the global economy.

Regional Expertise
Nigeria

Bongeka BuhlebaMashasha Hlengwa-Selepe

Lecturer, isiZulu, African Studies Program

bbselepe@iu.edu

Research + Teaching Interests
IsiZulu as an additional language; Applied Linguistics; Psycholinguistics; Translation and Interpreting; Onomastics; Language policy implementation; Language in education policy; Development and promotion of indigenous languages; Terminology Development

Regional Expertise
South Africa

Amadou Beidy Sow

Senior Lecturer, Bamana, African Studies

absow@indiana.edu
(812) 855-6786
Global and International Studies Building, 3073

Research + Teaching Interests
Bamana language; culture in Mali; political leadership

Regional Expertise
Mali

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