Research in African American Studies

Dr. Patrick Elliot Alexander, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, Director of the University of Mississippi Prison-to-College Pipeline Program, and recipient of the University of Mississippi Humanities Teacher of the Year Award from the Mississippi Humanities Council, was inducted in the  L.C. Dorsey Research Honor Society for his scholarship on higher education in prison in the South. The honor society is a multidisciplinary network of social, behavioral, health, and citizen scientists who have contributed to the production of exceptional minority health and health disparities research. Dr. Alexander's first book was From Slave Ship to SUPERMAX: Mass Incarceration, Prisoner Abuse, and the New Neo-Slave Novel.

Dr. Kesicia Dickinson, Assistant Professor of Political Science and African American Studies, focuses her research on the perception of African American female candidates by potential voters. One project looks at first generation students and students of color and how they take the information they gain around voting and voting engagement on college campuses back to their homes and families.

Dr. George Worlasi Kwasi Dor, Professor of Music and Carnegie African Diaspora Fellow, was named an Iconic Composer of Ghanaian Art Music by the University of Ghana School of Performing Arts. Additionally, the school declared him a Distinguished Contributor to the Development of Contemporary Ghanaian Music & African Musicology.

National Public Radio's Weekend Edition Saturday featured an eight-minute segment about Dr. Adam Gussow, Professor of English and Southern Studies, and his Blues Tradition in American Literature course at Parchman prison and Dr. Patrick Alexander, Associate Professor of English and African American Studies, and his award-winning Prison-to-College Pipeline Program. The university-community engagement initiative promotes higher education in prison in response to high rates of incarceration and the state's ongoing need for increased access to educational opportunities.

Dr. Charles Ross, Professor of History and African American Studies, and Dr. Jeff Jackson, Professor and Chair of Sociology & Anthropology, accepted the Mississippi Historical Society Award of Merit for the interdisciplinary University of Mississippi Slavery Research Group they founded to discover the history of enslaved people at UM. The group has identified the names of enslaved people who worked on campus and has escorted students and visitors on UM's campus Slavery Tour.

Dr. Marvin King, Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies, led a series of state-wide meetings to provide professional development and networking for non-governmental organizations and other voluntary groups and institutions with a social mission. Supported by grants from the Skoll Foundation and Higher Purpose Co., these workshops championed the work of social innovators to build community wealth within Mississippi for people of color by supporting ownership of financial, cultural, and political power.

Dr. Mohammed Bashir Salau, Professor of History, studies and teaches African history focusing on slavery and labor, primarily in West Africa. The author of two books, The West African Slave Plantation: A Case Study and Plantation Slavery in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Historical and Comparative Study. For his next project he is engaging with the literature of prisons in Africa to find correlations with his previous slavery studies.

Dr. Jodi Skipper, Professor of Anthropology and Southern Studies and recipient of the College of Liberal Arts Sanford and Susan Thomas Senior Professor Research Award, is an historical archaeologist focused on African American culture in the South. Her work includes the prize-winning book Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the U.S. South and the Mississippi Historical Society Excellence in History Award-winning program in Holly Springs interpreting the lives of enslaved people through the structures they lived and worked in and the artifacts they left behind.