Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies

Core Faculty

Affiliated Faculty

Members of the Core Faculty hold appointments with both the Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies (IDBS) and one of The Claremont Colleges. Core Faculty participate fully in all departmental decisions. Only Core Faculty vote on Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure decisions. The IDBS Chair is held only by tenured Core Faculty. 

Dipa Basu

1995-. Pitzer College, Associate Professor, Sociology. Ph.D., University of Manchester United Kingdom). 
Basu specializes in urban sociology, popular culture ethnic entrepreneurship, and race and ethncity.  Recent publications include a chapter in Sociology, the state and social change, and journal articles in Post Colonial Studies, Psych Discourse, and Ethnic and Racial Studies.  Web page:  click here.  E-mail:  click here. 

Marcelle Christian

2001-. Pomona College, Assistant Professor, Psychology. Ph.D., University of Michigan. 
Christian is interested in culture, psychological assessment, and culturally-competent delivery of mental health services.   Her publications include an analysis of the social context of juvenile delinquency among African American boys, and family factors that contribute to the psychological adjustment of African  American children. Currently, her research addresses African American female sexuality.  Focusing specifically on the development and content of African  American women's sexual self-concepts, she studies how the subjective experience of conflict among self-concepts can have mental health and sexual health consequences.  E-mail:  click


Halford H. Fairchild

1993-. Pitzer College, Professor, Psychology. Ph.D., University of Michigan. 
Professor Fairchild has over 200 publications including four co-authored or co-edited books.  A social psychologist, Professor Fairchild's interests are in race relations, Black Psychology, and HIV/AIDS.  He is currently working on a novel that examines aspects of the slave trade trade in 18th Century West Africa. Web page:  click here.  E-mail:  click here. or Home E-mail. 

Laura Harris

1997-.  Pitzer College, Assistant Professor, English and World Literature.  Ph.D. 
Professor Harris is a specialist in African American literature, gay and lesbian literature, and the Harlem Renaissance. 
E-mail:  lharris@pitzer.edu. 

Agnes Moreland Jackson

1969-1997. Professor Emerita, Pitzer College, Peter S. and Gloria Gold Professor (1992-97), English and World Literature. Ph.D., Columbia University. 
Jackson's publications are in American literature and on cultural and educational values in U.S. society. She has conducted workshops for teachers of Black American literature and was consultant to several college English departments as they brought African American literature into their curricula. Jackson is also active in public affairs. She was elected to two four-year terms on the Pomona School Board.  Professor Jackson served as the Sojourner Truth Lecturer for 2000-2001. 

Phyllis J. Jackson

1993-. Pomona College, Associate Professor, Art and Art History. Ph.D., Northwestern University. 
Jackson's research and teaching interests center on the arts of Africa and the African Diaspora, Black Feminism(s), Women's Studies and Cultural Studies. She curated the art exhibition, "(in)FORMING the Visual: (re)PRESENTING Women of African descent" and has an essay in an upcoming issue of the International Review of African American Art as well as the forthcoming collection Global Black African Diaspora 2000 Series Roots, Routes, and Redefinitions, Vol. I. She is co-producer and co-director of the documentary video "Comrade Sister: Voices of Women in the Black Panther Party" (a work-in-progress). Jackson was co-organizer of IDBS'1997-98 conference, OUTING WHITENESS: interrogating re-presentations of race and racism, February 6-7, 1998 .  Web Page:  click here.  E-mail: click here. 

Sidney Lemelle

1986-. Pomona College, Professor, History. Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles. 
Published in journals in the United States and in England, Lemelle's work emphasizes African history and Pan-Africanism. He is the author of Pan-Africanism for Beginners and editor of a volume of essays, Imagining Home.  E-mail:  click here. 

Rita Roberts

1987-. Scripps College, Associate Professor, History. Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley. 
Roberts' most recent publication appeared in the journal, Eighteenth-Century Studies. Roberts is the author of a forthcoming book on black political thought in the early republic. She is also working on a multicultural U.S. history survey textbook.  E-mail:  Click here. 

Marie-Denise Shelton

1977-. Claremont McKenna College, Professor, French. Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles. 
Shelton has published numerous articles on Caribbean, African, and modern French literature and is the author of a book on the Haitian novel. Her most recent publication appears in the volume entitled, A History of Literature in the Caribbean.  E-mail:  click here. 

 

Valorie Thomas

1998-. Pomona College, Assistant Professor, English. Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley. 
Thomas is a specialist in African Diaspora Film, African American Literature, and Screenwriting as creative and critical process.  She currently has an article forthcoming in African American Review (2002) titled, "1+1=3: Reading Vertigo in Invisible Man, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and Song of Solomon," and is completing a book on representations of vertigo and vernacular space in African Diaspora film and literature.    Prof. Thomas was Co-convener of the First Pomona College English Department Spring 2001 Conference Series, "Representations: Race/Technology/Culture," www.english.pomona.edu/rtc/, co-sponsored by IDBS.E-mail: Click here.

Affiliated Faculty are those who do not hold a joint appointment with the Intercollegiate Department of Black Studies (IDBS) but teach courses and conduct research in an area of Black Studies. Claremont Colleges faculty interested in Affiliate status with the IDBS make a request in writing or are otherwise invited by the IDBS to join the department. Affiliate status is granted by the department based upon the individual's c.v., course offerings, and scholarly contribution in relation to the overall mission of the department. 

Affiliated Faculty are expected to participate fully in meetings and other departmental activitites. While they do not technically vote on appointment, promotion and tenure, they are invited to participate in various aspects of the review process. Their input is taken into account in reaching final APT decisions. 

Affiliated Faculty, 1995-96 

Cecilia Conrad

1996-*. Pomona College, Associate Professor, Economics. Ph.D., Stanford University. 
Conrad's most recent publications have appeared in the Review of Black Political Economy, The Journal of Economic History, and the American Economic Review. Her research interests are currently in poverty among single mothers and the impact of the California Civil Rights Initiative on higher education. She is past President of the National Economic Association.  Web page:  click here.  E-mail:  click here. 

Gwendolyn Lytle

1985-. Pomona College, Professor and Resident Artist, Music. M.M., New England Conservatory of Music. 
Lytle teaches vocal performance specializing in American music with an emphasis on African-American composers. She has performed widely in the United States and abroad.  E-mail:  click here. 

Dean E. McHenry, Jr.

2000-.  Claremont Graduate University.  Professor of Politics and Policy.  Ph.D., Indiana University (1971). 
Professor McHenry is in a specialist in African politics, has researched and taught for many years in Africa, his most recent book was Limited Choices:  The political struggle for socialism in Tanzania (Lynne Rienner, 1994).  He teaches comparative politics of the Third World.  He has been at CGU since 1982.  He is currently co-chair of the Certificate Program in Africana Studies at CGU.  Email:  Dean.Mchenry@cgu.edu 

Sheila J. Walker

1993-. Scripps College, Associate Professor, Psychology. Ph.D., Cornell University. 
Walker is a developmental psychologist whose research interests include sociocultural influences on cognitive development, and the normative development of African American children and adolescents.  She has conducted research in West Africa, Appalachia, and Southern California.  Recent research included an ethnographic study of African American adolescent females; another project investigated the economic socialization of African American youth.  Her publications have appeared in journals such as the British Journal of Developmental Psychology and Memory & Cognition.  E-mail:  click here. 

Kathleen Wicker

1996-. Scripps College, Professor, Religion and Humanities. Ph.D., Loyola University of Chicago. 
Wicker's research interests are in African religions and African Christianity. She is currently a member of a team researching Mammy Water ritual in Ghana. Her most recent publications will appear in Research in African Literatures and a volume titled African Spirituality.  Web page: click here.  E-mail:  click here. 
*Date denotes beginning of affiliation with IDBS.