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Africana Studies Faculty


  • Department Chair

  • Jeremy R. Ball
    Associate Professor of History (2005).
    Althouse Hall Room G10
    ballj@dickinson.edu
    (717) 254-8191

  • Department Faculty

  • Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy

    Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy
    Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, Distinguished Chair in Africana Studies (2009).
    Althouse Hall Room G20
    (717) 245-1894 | moonsamp@dickinson.edu
    B.A., San Francisco State University, 1986; M.A., University of Michigan, 2002; Ph.D., 2009.

    Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. in Business Administration from San Francisco State University. Her scholarly interests lie at the intersection of expressive culture, social activism, and the politics of representation and subjectivity in the post-colonial Caribbean. With funding from the National Science Foundation, she conducted fieldwork in Trinidad and Tobago, exploring the dynamic relationships that exist between people of African and South Asian Indian ancestry and documenting how these are expressed though performance. At Dickinson College, Dr. van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy teaches courses on the African Diaspora and the Caribbean, and continues to engage in research on performance, activism and identity politics in the Caribbean.

  • Lynn Johnson

    Lynn Johnson
    (on leave 2011-12)
    Assistant Professor of Africana Studies (2004).

    johnsoly@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Salisbury University, 1996; M.A., Temple University, 1998; Ph.D., 2007.

    Her research interests are in 19th- and early 20th-century American Literature, African-American Literature, and African Aesthetics.

  • Courtney L. Thompson

    Courtney L. Thompson
    Visiting Assistant Professor of Africana Studies (2011).
    Althouse Hall Room G19
    thompsco@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Hampton University, 2001; M.A., Purdue University, 2003; Ph.D., 2011.

  • Megan Glick

    Megan Glick
    ACLS New Faculty Fellow in Africana Studies and American Studies (2010).
    Althouse Hall Room G12
    (717) 245-1050 | glickm@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Northwestern University, 2002; M.A., Yale University, 2004; M.Phil., 2005; Ph.D., 2008.

  • Contributing Faculty

  • Jeremy R. Ball

    Jeremy R. Ball
    Associate Professor of History (2005).
    Althouse Hall Room G10
    (717) 254-8191 | ballj@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., Boston College, 1994; M.A., Yale University, 1998; Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2003.

    He teaches courses in African political and ecological history, apartheid, the Atlantic slave trade, and human rights. His research focuses on the labor and business history of Angola, Portuguese colonialism, and oral history.

  • Mara E. Donaldson

    Mara E. Donaldson
    Professor of Religion (1990).
    East College Room 207
    (717) 245-1228 | donaldsm@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Wilson College, 1971; M.A., Vanderbilt University, 1974; Ph.D., Emory University, 1984.
    Dickinson Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1998-1999. Ganoe Award for Inspirational Teaching, 2000-2001.

    Her teaching focuses on contemporary religious thought, especially feminist and liberation theologies, and religion and art, including contemporary fantasy literature, film, and popular culture.

  • James G. Ellison

    James G. Ellison
    Associate Professor of Anthropology (2005).
    239 W Louther St
    (717) 245-1902 | ellisonj@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Michigan State University, 1987; M.A., University of Florida, 1990; Ph.D., 1999.

    A broadly trained cultural anthropologist, Ellison researches political and economic transformations and culture in eastern Africa, focusing on colonialism, socialism, and "neoliberalism." His main fieldwork sites are in Tanzania and Ethiopia. He also co-directs a summer field school in Tanzania to teach anthropological research methods.

  • Benjamin Ngong

    Benjamin Ngong
    (on leave Spring 2012)
    Assistant Professor of French and Francophone Studies (2007).
    Bosler Hall Room 110
    (717) 245-1738 | ngongb@dickinson.edu
    Licence es-Lettres Modernes, Université de Yaoundé, 1988; Maitrise es Lettres Modernes; D.E.A., Littératures française et comparée, Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens (France), 1991; Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2007.

    His research and teaching interests include 20th-century French novel, Francophone African and Caribbean literatures, cultures, and film, colonial and postcolonial studies. His published and forthcoming articles focus on the relationship of power to social and political violence as portrayed in African and Caribbean literature and film.

  • Jerry Philogene

    Jerry Philogene
    (on leave 2011-12)
    Assistant Professor of American Studies (2005).

    philogej@dickinson.edu
    B.A., New School University, 1989; M.A., New York University, 1993; Ph.D., 2009.

    Jerry Philogene specializes in 20th century African American and Afro Caribbean visual arts and cultural history. Her teaching interests include interdisciplinary American cultural history and black cultural and identity politics. Her research interests explore the intersections of race, ethnicity, class, and gender as articulated in contemporary visual and popular culture.

  • Kim L. Rogers

    Kim L. Rogers
    Professor of History (1983).
    239 W Louther St
    (717) 245-1517 | rogersk@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Florida State University, 1973; M.A., University of Minnesota, 1976; Ph.D. 1982.

    Her teaching interests center on recent U.S. history, urban America, and gender and family history. Research interests include biography and autobiography, oral history, and life-course analysis.

  • J. Mark Ruhl

    J. Mark Ruhl
    Glenn E. and Mary L. Todd Professor of Political Science (1975).
    Denny Hall Room 207
    (717) 245-1501 | ruhl@dickinson.edu | Visit Web Site
    B.A., Dickinson College, 1970; M.A., Syracuse University, 1972; Ph.D., 1975.
    Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1988-1989.

    He specializes in comparative politics. His research centers on the politics of democratization in contemporary Latin America with a special emphasis on civil-military relations.

  • Vanessa C. Tyson

    Vanessa C. Tyson
    Assistant Professor of Political Science (2007).
    Denny Hall Room 102
    (717) 245-1232 | tysonv@dickinson.edu
    B.A., Princeton University, 1998; M.A., University of Chicago, 2002; Ph.D., 2011.

    Professor Tyson focuses her research on interracial alliances in the House of Representatives, and what political dynamics these alliances create outside of more traditional issues regarding race. More broadly, she focuses on Congress and American Political Institutions, as well as race and gender as they operate as social constructs in the United States.