Dr Kameelah Martin will be joining us in Fall 2017 from Savannah State University where she has been teaching in the Department of English, Language, and Cultures since 2013. Dr Martin’s academic pedigree includes a BA in English (with a minor in Africana Studies) from Georgia Southern University, followed by an MA in Afro-American Studies from UCLA, and a PhD in English from Florida State University, where her dissertation won the 2006-7 J. Russell Reaver Award for Outstanding Dissertation in American Literature or Folklore. Dr Martin’s work on the performance of African spirituality by women of color in visual media and literature has already resulted in two published monographs (Conjuring Moments in African American Literature: Women, Spirit Work, and Other Such Hoodoo [Palgrave, 2013], and Envisioning Black Feminist Voodoo Aesthetics: African Spirituality in American Cinema [Lexington, 2016]) and multiple articles. With family roots that she has traced back to Kingstree, SC, Dr Martin is currently engaged in research that combines genealogy with more standard academic analyses of literary history and cultural studies.

We are delighted to welcome Dr Kameelah Martin to the College of Charleston as our new permanent Director of African American Studies.