Project Team
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Toussaint Losier
Toussaint Losier – Project Director: University of Massachusetts, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Department of Afro-American Studies, Associate Professor. Trained in 20th century U.S. and African American history, Dr. Losier specializes in issues of criminal justice and social movement politics. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History and a Woodrow Wilson National Foundation Career Enhancement Fellow. He is co-author of Rethinking the American Prison Movement (Routledge, 2017) with Dan Berger and is preparing a book manuscript tentatively titled, War for the City: Black Liberation and the Consolidation of the Carceral State. He previously co-taught a Black Studies class for two years at the South Bay House of Corrections and taught for six years in the St. Leonard’s Adult High School providing a fully accredited secondary education for formerly incarcerated women and men in Chicago.
Yolanda Covington-Ward
Yolanda Covington-Ward – Co-Director: University of Massachusetts, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Department of Afro-American Studies, Professor and Department Chair. Dr. Covington-Ward is trained as a cultural anthropologist. She is a scholar of Africa and the African Diaspora specializing in studies of culture, history, identity, religion, and performance. She was recently a Visting fellow at the Kluge Center, was a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, and a Fulbright Fellow, among other honors. She is the author of the awardwinning book Gesture and Power: Religion, Nationalism, and Everyday Performance in Congo (Duke University Press, 2016) and has a second book on the Liberian diaspora currently under contract. She has also co-edited two volumes, Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas (Duke Univ. Press) and African Performance Arts and Political Acts (Univ. of Michigan Press). Formerly on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, she led the committee that created the first required course on anti-Black racism in the country. She has led several curriculum development workshops previously for K-12 educators and participated in early consulting efforts for the development of the AP African American Studies course. She also taught the introductory level course “Introduction to Africana Studies” for thirteen years.
A. Yemisi Jimoh
A Yemisi Jimoh – Co-Director: University of Massachusetts, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Department of Afro-American Studies, Professor. A literary and cultural analyst, Dr. Jimoh focuses her scholarship and teaching on African American culture and literary studies, with additional research interests in critical race studies, narratology, and onomastics. Professor Jimoh offers courses in twentieth-century African American literature and has particular interests in African American literary movements and African American women novelists. Her scholarship includes reviews, articles. and essays published in venues such as Black Scholar (photos), African American Review, MELUS, Texas Journal of Political Studies, and Western Journal of Black Studies on topics including the New Negro era and its writers, as well as on writings by Dorothy West, Gwendolyn Brooks, Toni Morrison, Ann Petry, and others. She has a co-edited volume, These Truly Are the Brave: An Anthology of African American Writings on War and Citizenship, co-edited a special issue of American Studies Journal focusing on Ralph Ellison; co-edited a special issue of MELUS on twenty-first century ethnic literatures in the United States; and is the author of a book on literature and music titled, Spiritual, Blues, and Jazz People in African American Fiction. Dr. Jimoh also was a visiting fellow at Harvard University in the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Research in Afro-American Studies and was a participant in the National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute on the Civil Rights Movement. She also was among the many faculty consultants for Advanced Placement African American Studies for the College Board.
Keisha Green
Keisha Green- K-12 Educator: Associate Professor of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies at UMass Amherst College of Education; Co-founder and Co-director of the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research Dr. Keisha L. Green is a mama-scholar-activist and critical teacher educator with research interests in English Education, youth literacy practices, critical pedagogies, and humanizing qualitative research. She is published in journals including International Journal for Qualitative Studies; Equity & Excellence in Education; Race, Ethnicity, and Education; and Educational Forum. She has authored chapters in edited volumes including Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities and Youth Voices, Public Spaces, and Civic Engagement. Dr. Green currently serves as co-editor of the acclaimed journal Equity & Excellence in Education. Dr. Green also serves as a consultant for area educational institutions supporting their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Shannon Laribo
Yolanda Covington-Ward – Co-Director: University of Massachusetts, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, Department of Afro-American Studies, Professor and Department Chair. Dr. Covington-Ward is trained as a cultural anthropologist. She is a scholar of Africa and the African Diaspora specializing in studies of culture, history, identity, religion, and performance. She was recently a Visting fellow at the Kluge Center, was a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, and a Fulbright Fellow, among other honors. She is the author of the awardwinning book Gesture and Power: Religion, Nationalism, and Everyday Performance in Congo (Duke University Press, 2016) and has a second book on the Liberian diaspora currently under contract. She has also co-edited two volumes, Embodying Black Religions in Africa and Its Diasporas (Duke Univ. Press) and African Performance Arts and Political Acts (Univ. of Michigan Press). Formerly on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, she led the committee that created the first required course on anti-Black racism in the country. She has led several curriculum development workshops previously for K-12 educators and participated in early consulting efforts for the development of the AP African American Studies course. She also taught the introductory level course “Introduction to Africana Studies” for thirteen years.