DAFS Points of Pride

Learn about the Department's recent achievements, awards, honors, and publications.

Beverly J. Warren Unity Award for Diversity
- Received in 2019 by the Department of Africana Studies.
Excellence in Faculty Mentoring Award, Kent State University
- Received in 2019 by Amoaba Gooden.
Lifetime Achievement Award, Black United Students, Kent State University
- Received in 2019 by M. L. Temu.
Lifetime Achievement Award, Black Graduate Student Association, Kent State University
- Received in 2019 by Mwatabu Okantah.
Outstanding Co-Curricular Service Initiative Award for development of the Fulani Institute, Office of Community Engaged Learning, Kent State University
- Received in 2019 by Asantewa Sunni-Ali.
Advisor of the Year, Black United Students, Kent State University
- Received in 2019 by Linda Piccirillo-Smith.
D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickso
- Selected as one of ten university theatre directors from the U.S.A. and Canada to take an ensemble to the Fringe Festival in July 2019.
- A group of five Pan-African Theatre Ensemble (P.A.T.E.) cast members will participate in the Festival which occurs in Edinburgh, Scotland in the International Collegiate Theatre Festival (I.C.T.F) program.
- Other universities participating include Florida A&M University, Morehead State University, University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music, and Wayne State University.
Faculty of the Game, Kent State University
- Received in 2018 by Idris Kabir Syed.

Grants

Dr. Amoaba Gooden, with Frans Van Baar and Lisa Hanasono
- Received a $10,000 grant from the MAC for their project Empowering Project: Students, Faculty and Community Promoting Engagement to Effect Change, 2018.
Professor Mwatabu Okantah
- Received the $10,000 BME Community Genius Fellowship Grant
- The Genius Fellowship grant is given to Black men who have dedicated their lives to making a better future for others and are trusted by their communities because of it, 2019.

Global Feminisms and the Anti-Colonial Project, Institute of Gender and Development Studies Biennial Conference
- Dr. Asantewa Sunni-Ali and Dr. Amoaba Gooden, along with students Nyla Henderson and Shakeela Gray, were selected to participate, 2018.
Digital Masks to Africa - Cheikh Anta Diop: Poem for the Living, Pan-African Theatre Ensemble
- The Epic Poem was written by Kent State’s Professor Mwatabu Okantah and directed by Dr. D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson.
- The play ran for two nights to a full house, 2019.
An Echo in the Bone, Pan-African Theatre Ensemble
- The production was directed by Dr. D. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson in the African Community Theatre.
- The play ran for one night to a sold-out house, 2018.

Pan-African Festival - The Center of Pan-African Culture
- Over 100 people participated in the celebration of African and African diaspora culture on April 12-13, 2019.
- The Festival was organized and produced by Dr. Asantewa Sunni Ali.
Calabash Kids: A Tale from Tanzania, Fulani Institute of Academic and Arts - The Center of Pan-African Culture
- Over 100 people attended the production held December 2018.
- Written by Aaron Shepard and directed by Dr. Asantewa Sunni-Ali.
Pre-Kwanza Celebration - The Center of Pan African Culture
- Over 150 people participated in a pre-Kwanzaa Celebration held in the Center of Pan-African Culture, 2018.
- The celebration was written and produced by Dr. Asantewa Sunni-Ali.

Publications

Allen, Gooden, Hackett & Mucina, “Walking together: Indigenous and Black Perspectives on
Decolonizing Education,”S'Tenistolw" - Moving forward in Indigenous Higher
Education.
Gooden, A. “African Canadian Leadership: Pan-Africanism, Trans-nationality, and Community Organizing,” African Canadian Leadership: Perspectives on Continuity, Transition and Transformation. University of Toronto Press: Toronto.
Gooden, A. Interview with Mama Kariamu, The Routledge Companion to African American
Theatre and Performance, in eds. Renee Alexander-Craft, Thomas F. DeFrantz, Kathy A.
Perkins and Sandra L. Richards.
Kumah-Abiwu, Felix. 2019. “Changing Trends in West Africa’s Drug Policy Terrain: A
Theoretical Perspective.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 57 (1):52-70.
Kumah-Abiwu, Felix. 2019 “Urban Education and Academic Success: The Case of
Higher Achieving Black Males.” Urban Education 54 (4):1-27.
Kumah-Abiwu, Felix. 2019. “Media Gatekeeping and Portrayal of Black Men in
America.” The Journal of Men’s Studies. 1-18.
Kumah-Abiwu, Felix. 2019. “Black Males and Marginality in America’s Urban Centers:
Theorizing Blackness and Media Gatekeepers.” In Marginality in the Urban Center: The Costs and Challenges of Continued Whiteness in the Americas and Beyond, ed. Peary Brug, Zachary Ritter, and Kenneth Roth. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 111-131.

Street Address