Message from Chancellor Fox: One of UC San Diego’s greatest institutional strengths is the breadth and depth of faculty research on a range of important topics. Each month, Chancellor’s Corner will showcase cross-disciplinary faculty expertise in a specific area. I invite you to learn more about the work of these scholars, and I hope you share my pride in their achievements and their contributions to society.

Black History

Boatema Boateng,
Asst Professor
Boateng started out producing training materials for agricultural extension in Ghana and then moved to the Ghana National Council on Women and Development where she undertook advocacy and clearinghouse services for women. Following that she worked as a private consultant offering training in gender analysis and gender sensitization for professionals in public and private sector organizations in Ghana. She is interested in issues of power in three main areas: gender relations, global cultural flows, and intellectual property regulation. More…

David Borgo,
Asst. Professor, Music
David Borgo is a saxophonist/composer/improviser, ethnomusicologist, and an Associate Professor in the Critical Studies and Experimental Practices Program at UCSD. He has a B.M. in Jazz Studies from Indiana University (1990) and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from UCLA (1996, 1999). More…

Robert Cancel,
Assoc Professor, Literature
Robert Cancel researches and teaches African oral and written literatures and traditions, African cinema, and Caribbean literature. His research interests also lie in the political, historical and social aspects of African countries, specifically those in southern Africa, as well as in Caribbean music, literature, and cultural representations of the 1960s. More…

Zeinabu Davis,
Professor, Communication
A veteran of independent film and video, Davis has produced numerous award winning works. Her vision is passionately focused on the depiction of African American women - their hopes, dreams, past and future. Her latest work, a dramatic feature film entitled Compensation uses silent cinema techniques to portray two inter-related love stories that offer a view of Black Deaf culture. Her interests include altering and diversifying the terrain of mass media, film history, world cinema and folklore. She frequently writes and lectures on African and African American cinema. More…

Anthony Davis,
Professor, Music
The music of pianist, improvisor and composer Anthony Davis eludes easy categorization. Active in a variety of media, including operatic, symphonic, choral, chamber, dance, theater, and improvised musics, Davis has focused upon the integration of improvised and notated expressive resources. His work embodies an intercultural approach, drawing not only upon traditional and current African-American sources, but upon the Javanese gamelan, American Minimalism, and the European and Euro-American avant-garde. More…

Ivan Evans,
Assoc. Professor, Sociology
Ivan Evans received his B.A. (Honours) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He taught at the University of the Western Cape and UCLA before joining the Department of Sociology at UCSD. In addition to articles on South Africa, he has published Bureaucracy and Race: Native Administration in South Africa (1997) and Cultures of Violence: Lynching and Racial Killing in South Africa and the American South (2008). He teaches courses on change in modern South Africa; race and ethnicity; political sociology; violence and society; social movements; and environmental sociology.  Professor Evan's current research  focuses on global climate change and the politics of water management in southern Africa. More…

Camille Forbes,
Asst. Professor, Literature
Camille F. Forbes is an Assistant Professor of African-American Literature and Culture. She received her Ph.D. in American Civilization from Harvard University, an M.A. in History from Harvard University, and a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University. Her teaching and research interests include: Nineteenth-Century African-American Literature and Culture; African-American Performance; American Literature; Cultural Studies. More…

Zoltan Hajnal,
Asst. Professor, Political Science
Zoltan Hajnal is a scholar of racial and ethnic politics, urban politics, direct democracy, and political behavior. His research interests include minority representation, urban governance, inequality, and political participation. He is currently working on a project that focuses on the multiple dimensions of Independent party choice and a book manuscript that examines the impact of black mayoral leadership on white racial attitudes and voting behavior. More…

Michael Hanson,
Asst. Professor, Communication
Michael Hanson is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Department. His research interests include race and racism; Black cultural politics; race, representation and the media; popular music; aural and visual culture; race, technology and identity; place, space and Black Diasporic culture; Afrofuturism; urban social movements; popular culture and expressive practices; epistemology; and cultural theory. More…

Sara Johnson,
Asst. Professor, Literature
Sara Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Literature of the Americas. She received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University and her B.A. in Comparative Literature and African American Studies from Yale University. Her current book manuscript explores the culture legacy of the Haitian Revolution in the extended Americas. Her research and teaching areas include nineteenth- and twentieth-century Anglophone, Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean literature and theory; inter-American studies; African-American literature and cultural studies of the African Diaspora. More…

Bennetta Jules-Rosette,
Professor, Sociology
Bennetta Jules-Rosette is Professor of Sociology at the University of California San Diego and Director of the African and African-American Studies Research Project. As Project Director, she organizes research programs, symposia, community and youth outreach, and cultural events focusing on Africa and the African diaspora. She received her B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) in Social Relations from Radcliffe College and her M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) from Harvard University in Social Relations (Sociology and Anthropology). More…

Daniel Widener,
Asst. Professor, History
Danny Widener teaches African American history, cultural studies, and twentieth-century political radicalism. He began his educational career at the Echo Park-Silverlake Peoples’ Childcare Center. He studied at Berkeley and New York University. He has written on the politics of black culture in postwar Los Angeles, black-Latino and Afro-Asian issues, and the Korean War. More…

** To learn more about other campus faculty scholars and areas of expertise, please visit the searchable UC San Diego Faculty Experts Database at: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/facultyExperts/