Faculty and Staff
- Dr. Faye V. Harrison, Program Director
- Ms. Sharon Burney, Office Manager
- Dr. William Conwill
- Dr. William Baber
- Dr. James Davidson
- Dr. Stephanie Evans
- Dr. Marilyn Thomas-Houston
- Adjunct Professors and Affiliate Faculty
- Student Assistants
Dr. Faye Harrison fayeharr@ufl.edu
Professor, African American Studies and Department of Anthropology
Personal Home Page http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fayeharr/
Faye V. Harrison is Professor of
African
American Studies
and Anthropology. She is a
sociocultural anthropologist who specializes in the study of racial,
gender,
and class inequalities and the politics that emerge in response to them. She is also interested in the history of
ideas, with a particular focus on the scholarly contributions of
African
Americans and other African diaspora intellectuals. She
has done research in the U.S., the U.K. and the Caribbean. In
her current research she is examining African American women activists
within a
transnational coalition organizing against race- and gender-related
human
rights violations in both the U.S. South and the Global South. She is also interested in the human rights
implications of poverty and political clientelism in Jamaica, where
political violence
and an underground economy generate a volatile cycle of crime and
punishment. In this work, she is
exploring the everyday experiences of “outlaws” and “sufferers.”
Dr. Harrison’s scholarship has been published widely in books and journals in the U.S., the Netherlands, India, and China. She has edited several books, including Decolonizing Anthropology, African-American Pioneers in Anthropology (with Ira Harrison), and, most recently, Resisting Racism and Xenophobia: Global Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Human Rights. She is also the author of Outsider Within: Reworking Anthropology for the Global Age, nominated for an outstanding book award from the Gustavus Myer’s Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights.
A past president of the Association of Black Anthropologists, she currently chairs the Commission on the Anthropology of Women, a unit of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. She also serves as a key advisor for the American Anthropological Association’s award-winning traveling exhibit, “Race: Are We So Different?”
Ms. Sharon Burney sburney@clas.ufl.edu
Office Manager
Ms. Burney was born in Virginia and was raised in Washington D.C. and New York. She is a widely respected community activist and poet in Gainesville. She joined the AASP staff in August 2003 after working three years as the administrative assistant for one of the top children’s neurosurgeons in Florida. She has been instrumental in handling the administrative component of course schedules, the October 2003 Newsletter, research and travel arrangements for faculty and invited guests, and coordinating the student assistants for program and project tasks. In a short time, her organizational and creative skills have considerably contributed to the growth and development of AASP.
Dr. William Conwill wconwill@ufl.edu
Assistant Professor, African American Studies Program and the Department of Counselor Education
Personal Home Page http://www.coe.ufl.edu/Counselor/MeetingUs/Conwill.php
William Conwill is committed to working with problems
affecting family and community health. Conwill’s approach to theory
development
and practice reflects his history as a
philosopher-turned-psychologist-turned-healer. He uses a semiotic
concept of
the culture as a context within which complex systems of construable
signs can
be intelligibly—that is, thickly (Geertz, 1973)—described. As a
Counseling
Psychologist, he addresses researchers, teachers, providers, and other
stakeholders’ perceptions of clinical and educational dilemmas as normal,
given their backgrounds, and sets about uncovering the meaning of their
observations and scientific attributions.
This theoretical
approach, which first surfaced in Conwill’s doctoral
work on the normative social science perception of the Black family as
unstable, recurred in his study of patients suffering with chronic
pain. Conwill
directed study on the reactions, referral practices and personal and
family
backgrounds of surgeons, internists, family practitioners, and other
physicians
who referred patients to his clinic at the University of Louisville.
The
findings suggested that the history of chronic pain in the physicians’
own
families was a key factor in his or her reaction to the patient,
affecting
perception of patient credibility as well as the complex decisions
about treatment.
He recommended a candid assessment of physicians’ emotional reactions
as these
doctors considered treatment plans for patients suffering with chronic
pain.
Conwill is now
developing a metadisciplinary ecological model
of the intersectionality of gender, race, and class. He
applies this model to theory development, research design,
training, policy formation, and evaluation in health services. One of
his
current projects is an analysis of domestic violence in the Black
community, the
most cogent health issues facing Black women today. It is Conwill’s
hope that
future generations of health care providers can use an understanding of
how our
own and our clients’ and other significant stakeholders’ cultural
backgrounds
and perception of available resources affect our gendered experiences
of the
problems and issues we encounter, so that we can work together to solve
them more
efficaciously.
Geertz,
C. 1973 “Thick
Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Cultures” in C. Geertz, The interpretation of
cultures. NY: Basic Books.
Recent
Publications (for full list of publications, honors, and presentations,
please visit Dr. Conwill's website).
Garrett, M. T., Brubaker, M. D., & Torres-Rivera, E, & West-Olaunji, C., Conwill, W. (2008). The medicine of coming to center: Use of the Native American centering technique—Ayeli—to promote wellness and healing in group work. Journal for Specialists in Group Work, 33, 179-198.
Thomas, S. P., Thompson, C., Pollio, H. R., Greenberg, K., Conwill, W., Sall, A., Klukken, G., Davis, M. W., & Dias-Bowie, Y. (2007). Experiences of struggling African American students at a predominantly white university. 14(2), 1-17.
Conwill, W.L. (2007).
Neoliberal policy as structural violence: Its links to domestic
violence in
Black communities in the United States. In N. Gunewardena and A.
Kingsolver
(Eds.), The gender of globalization:
Women navigating cultural and economic marginalities. Santa Fe:
School for
Advanced Research Press, 127-146.
Dr. William Baber wbaber@anthro.com
Professor, Department of Anthropology
Personal Home Page http://web.anthro.ufl.edu/faculty/Baber.htm
Dr. Baber earned his PhD from Stanford University in 1979 and
held positions at Tuskegee University, Purdue University and the
University of North Carolina, Greensboro before coming to the
University of Florida in 2004.
His most recent research is on African American masculinity and HIV risk behavior. He also is working on a book-length manuscript, “The Social Ecology of Booker T. Washington,” based on research funded by the Department of the Interior from 1997 to 1999 and research conducted at the Booker T. Washington National Monument in Franklin County, Virginia.
Dr. James Davidson davidson@anthro.ufl.edu
Assistant Professor, African American Studies Program and
the Department of Anthropology
Personal Home Page http://web.anthro.ufl.edu/faculty/Davidson.htm
Dr. Davidson earned his PhD from the University of Texas at
Austin in August 2004 in anthropology, with a subdiscipline in
archaeology. His research focuses on mortuary archaeology, mainly
studying burial sites dating from the mid-19th century to the early
20th century. His graduate research involved exhuming Freedman's
Cemetery in Dallas, Texas, a burial ground for former black slaves from
1869 to 1907.
In describing his research, he writes, "Although my early
training was in North American prehistory, since the early 1990s I have
worked primarily in historical archaeology, pursuing two main
threads--issues of the African Diaspora and Mortuary Archaeology. These
two interests emerged out of my work at a single site: Freedman's
Cemetery in downtown Dallas, Texas, the primary place of burial for all
of Dallas's African American community between 1869 and 1907. Due to
highway construction, in the early 1990s a team of researchers spent
nearly three years exhuming 1,157 individuals from an acre of the
venerable cemetery."
"I deal primarily with late 19th century and early 20th century contexts, in cemeteries as well as occupation/household sites. Through a partnership with the St. Paul United Methodist Church, I helped lead an excavation at a former shotgun house site adjacent to and owned by the church. I have a strong desire to contextualize my archaeological data as much as possible with archival documentation and other sources. Within these contexts, I deal with the theoretical issues of race/ethnicity, identity, memory, and domination/resistance. At the University of Florida I plan to continue my work documenting the African-American Experience in Dallas as well as begin local projects within North Florida, allowing the African-American community to guide my research, addressing those issues and sites they deem of value. My first effort toward this goal is my current work with the survivors and descendant community of Rosewood, the former African-American community destroyed by a white mob in January 1923."
Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans drevans@ufl.edu
Assistant Professor, African American Studies and Center
for Women’s Studies and Gender Research
Personal Home Page http://www.ProfessorEvans.com
Dr. Stephanie Y. Evans is author of Black Women in the Ivory
Tower, 1850-1954: An Intellectual History (University Press of
Florida, 2007). The book has been widely and positively reviewed by
twelve academic outlets. In May 2003, she received her Ph.D. in
Afro-American
Studies with a concentration in History and Politics from the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst and in May 2002 earned a Master’s
Degree in the same field. Also in 2002, she completed the Graduate
Certificate Program in Advanced Feminist Studies.
Her research interest is Black women’s intellectual and
educational history in the United States. In her dissertation, "Living
Legacies: Black Women, Educational Philosophies, and Community Service,
1865-1965," she considered the educational ideas of four African
American women educators: Fanny Jackson Coppin, Anna Julia Cooper, Mary
McLeod Bethune, and Septima Clark.
The 2008-09 academic year marks Dr. Evans' 6th year at
University of Florida. She teaches introductory courses in Women's
Studies and African American Studies, community service-learning
courses in which she partners with East Gainesville agencies, and she
also teaches a travel abroad course: "African Americans in Paris."
Dr. Evans' latest article, "Research and Gender in the African
Academy: 'Moving Against the Grain' in the Global Ivory Tower" is
available from the journal Black
Women Gender, and Families. She also has published work in
Florida Historical Quarterly,
Feminist Teacher, Griot: Southern Conference on African
American Studies, Journal of
African American History, International
Journal of Women's Studies, Phi
Beta Kappa Key Reporter, and International
Journal of Humanities.
Publications: http://www.professorevans.com/Research_2.asp
Courses and Syllabi: http://www.professorevans.com/teaching.asp
Dr. Marilyn
Thomas-Houston marilynm@.ufl.edu
Assistant Professor, African American Studies Program and Department of Anthropology
Personal Home Page http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/marilyth/
Dr. Thomas-Houston earned her PhD in cultural anthropology from New York University in 1997. Before coming to UF in 2001, she was an assistant professor of anthropology and African American studies at the University of South Carolina. Her current research is on social action in the black communities of Nova Scotia, Canada. She also recently published a book, “Stony the Road” to Change: Black Mississippians and the Culture of Social Relations, on the Civil Rights Movement in Oxford, Mississippi.
Adjunct Professors & Affiliate Faculty
Patricia Hilliard-Nunn, Ph.D.
Dr. Patricia Hilliard-Nunn earned her doctorate in Mass Communication from Florida State University in 1993. She owns Makare Publishing Company and works as an independent media producer. Her areas of research include: Media and Culture, Audience Analysis, Enslaved Africans in Alachua County, African American History in Alachua County. Her creative practices include Media Production, West African Dance & Mixed Media Art. Before teaching in African America Studies, she taught Black Women and Film in the Center for Women’s Studies and Gender Research at the University of Florida and served various populations while working as a Community Organizer in Alachua County.
Nicole Banton
Political Science Sharon Austin, AS. Prof.
Anthropology Willie Baber, Professor
Clinical Health & Psychology Duane E. Dede, As. Prof.
African & Asian Languages James Essegby, As. Prof.
Music Elizabeth Graham, Professor
Anthropology Clarence Gravelee, As. Prof
English L. Horton-Stallings, As. Prof
English Debra W. King, As. Prof
Law Kenneth B. Nunn, Professor
English Amy Abugo Ongiri, As. Prof.
History Alan Petigny, As. Prof.
Theater & Dance Mikell Pinkey
Education (Alliance Center) Bernard Oliver, Professor
English, Film Studies Mark Reid, As. Prof
Law Katheryn R. Brown, Professor
Art & Art History Eric Segal, As. Prof
Psychology Carolyn Tucker, Professor
Education (Counselor) Cirecie Olatunji, As.Prof
Religion Gwen Z. Simmions, As Prof.
Student Assistants, 2008-2009
Katrina Harvey
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