Meet Our Faculty and Staff
Full Time Faculty
Taharka Adé, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Director, Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center
Office: AL-371
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: Afrocentricity, Africological Historiography, Pan-Africanism, African American History and Theory, Dubosian thought, and Afrofuturism
Antwanisha Alameen-Shavers, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Office: AL-367
Phone: (619) 594-3352
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: Role of African women in African civilizations, Black female and male embodiment
Adisa A. Alkebulan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Office: AL-365
Phone: (619) 594-5174
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: Pan-African Linguistics, African & African American history
Daniela Gomes da Silva, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Office: AL-363
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: Afro-Brazilian and African Diaspora Movements, Hip Hop
Sureshi M. Jayawardene, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department Chair and Academic Advisor
Office: AL-373A
Phone: (619) 594-6554
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: Africana geographies and epistemologies, diaspora, memory,
expressive cultures, spirituality
Anta Anthony Merritt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Office: AL-358
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: African American and African history, Politics of the African diaspora, Africana social and religious systems, Rastafari studies, Martial arts of the African diaspora
Charmane M. Perry, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Office: AL-369
Email: [email protected]
Areas of interests: Haitians in The Bahamas; Haitian diaspora; Antihaitianism; Stigma of being Haitian; Black Philadelphia and the desegregation of Girard College
Charles Toombs, Ph.D.
Professor
Office: AL-367
Phone: (619) 594-6532
Email: [email protected]
Areas of specialization: Africana literature, American literature, Black Queer Studies, Class and Urban Studies
Part-Time Faculty
Esther Anthony-Thomas, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Ajani Brown, MFA
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Phone: [email protected]
Kaia Brown, M.A.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Yoknyam Dabale, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Delores Fisher, M.A.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Theresa Ford, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Farrell Foreman, MFA
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Virginia (Gina) Jackson, M.A.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Mychal Odom, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Brother Kwame Shabazz, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Brianna Simmons, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Terry Sivers, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Abner Sotenos, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Tanis Starck, Ph.D.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Marcus Taylor, M.A.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Ebony Tyree, M.A.
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Chida Warren, M.A. and MPH
Lecturer
Office: AL-373
Email: [email protected]
Staff
Tamika Lovelace
Administrative Coordinator
Office: AL-373
Phone: (619) 594-5341
Email: [email protected]
Emeritus Faculty
Shirley Weber, Ph.D.
Email: [email protected]
Shirley Weber is a Professor Emerita of Africana Studies. She was a member of the department since its inception in 1972 until 2010. Educated in the public schools of Los Angeles, she has a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in the area of speech communications. Dr. Weber is recognized nationally and internationally for her ground breaking work to establish the discipline of Africana Studies. Dr. Weber was previously a member of the California State Assembly, representing the 79th district. She is currently the California Secretary of State.