Africanist Faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill
This page contains an alphabetical listing of faculty members at UNC-Chapel Hill who have research or teaching interests in Africa. In addition to this resource, the Center for Global Initiatives maintains the International Faculty Expertise Database, which allows users to search by various criteria to find faculty members with particular specializations.
Linda Adair
linda_adair@unc.eduProfessor, Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Maternal and child nutrition in developing countries; developmental origins of adult disease.
Relevant Courses Taught: ECON 851, Health Economics in the Developing World.
John Akin
john_akin@unc.eduCarr Distinguished Professor and Chair, Economics
Specialization: Health economics; financing of health systems in developing countries.
Relevant Courses Taught: ECON 851, Health Economics in the Developing World.
Sahar Amer
samer@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Asian Studies; Instructor, Medieval Studies
Specialization: Cross-cultural relations between Arabs and Europe; Muslims and Christians throughout history; North Africa; Arabs and Muslims in France today; cross-cultural constructions of gender.
Relevant Courses Taught: ARAB 101-102 Beginning Arabic; ARAB 203-204, Intermediate Arabic; ARAB 305-306, Advanced Arabic; ARAB 150, Introduction to Arab Culture.
Barbara Anderson
b_anderson@unc.eduAssociate Director, African Studies Center; Lecturer, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: Reflective practice; adult and continuing professional education; educational consulting in African and African American Studies; African American history before 1865; women and criminal justice in the U.S. South.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; online AFRI 101 for Teachers.
Glaire Anderson
glaire@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Art
Specialization: History of Islamic architecture; pre-modern Islamic art, architecture, and urbanism; Orientalism and visual culture; and the Historiography of Islamic Art.
Relevant Courses Taught: ART 154, Introduction to Art & Architecture of the Islamic Lands; ART 290, Topics in Art History: Art in the Age of the Caliphate; Art 450, The City as Monument: Cities and Society in the Medieval Islamic Lands; ART 458, Islamic Palaces, Gardens & Court Culture (8th-16th c. CE); ART 561, Art & Society in Medieval Islamic Spain & North Africa; ART 956, Graduate Seminar: Orientalism & Art.
Martine Antle
mcantle@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Romance Languages
Specialization: Twentieth-Century French Studies; African Francophone literature; postmodernism and cultural studies.
Relevant Courses Taught: Francophone African Literature; Identities in French & Francophone Contexts (graduate).
Idris Assani
assani@email.unc.eduProfessor, Mathematics
Specialization: Ergodic theory; probability theory; organized collaboration between UNC-Chapel Hill and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.
Farida Badr
fbadr@email.unc.eduLecturer in Arabic, Department of Asian Studies.
Leann Bankoski
bankoski@unc.eduProgram Coordinator, Carolina for Kibera.
Navin Bapat
bapat@unc.eduAssistant Professor, Political Science and Peace, War, and Defense
Specialization: political conflict, insurgency, terrorism, interstate conflict, economic conflict, state building, bargaining, and the empirical testing of formal models.
Relevant Courses Taught: Africa and International Conflict.
Oscar Barbarin
barbarin@email.unc.eduProfessor, School of Social Work
Specialization: Child development; culture and mental health; early childhood education.
Relevant Experience: Investigator, Birth to Twenty Longitudinal Study of South African Children Evaluator, Selected by South African Government to evaluate the effectiveness of the research and training at The NRF Unit for Child Development (UCD), at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
Wilfrida Behets
Frieda_Behets@unc.eduAssociate Professor, Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Sexually Transmitted Infections, HIV/AIDS, STI and HIV prevention and research in Africa and the Caribbean, Woman controlled STI/HIV prevention; Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV; Bioethics and justice in health.
Relevant Experience: Research and public health experience in DR, Congo, Cameroon, Senegal, Madagascar, Malawi, Jamaica, Haiti.
Relevant Courses Taught: EPID 757, Epidemiology and Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS in Developing Countries; EPID 898, Epidemiology Bioethics in Developing Countries.
Trude Bennett
trude_bennett@unc.eduAssociate Professor, Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Global reproductive health and health policy; monitoring of maternal morbidity and women’s health; impact of globalization on reproductive health.
Relevant Courses Taught: MHCH 730, Reproductive Health Policy, EPID 690, Problems in Epidemiology (Section: Global Health Ethics Seminar); HPAA 496, Readings in Health Policy and Administration (Section: Critical Global Health Issues).
Margaret Bentley
pbentley@unc.eduProfessor and Associate Dean for Global Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Maternal and child nutrition; HIV prevention; HIV and breastfeeding; women’s health; reproductive health.
Relevant Experience: Associate Dean for Global Health, and Associate Director of the Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases. Development of a comprehensive fundraising and strategic planning program for global health in the School of Public Health.
Relevant Courses Taught: NUTR 745, International Nutrition; PUBH 510, Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Global Health; PUBH 511, Critical Issues in Global Public Health.
Shelah Bloom
ssbloom@email.unc.eduResearch Assistant Professor, Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in developing countries; maternal mortality and morbidity and gender context of reproductive health in developing countries.
Relevant Courses Taught: MHCH 716, International Family Planning and Reproductive Health.
Karen Booth
kmbooth@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Women’s Studies
Specialization: Gender and sexuality; issues related to imperialism, globalization and underdevelopment in the Third World; transnational feminisms; transnational queer politics; HIV/AIDS; reproductive health.
Relevant Courses Taught: WMST/INTS 281, Gender and Global Change; WMST 293, Gender and Imperialism; WMST/INTS 388, The International Politics of Sexual and Reproductive Health; WMST/INTS 410, Comparative Queer Politics; WMST 890, Graduate seminar on human rights, feminism, and sexuality.
Lydia Boyd
lydia.boyd@unc.eduAssistant Professor, African and African-American Studies
Specialization: African ethnography and social history; gender and sexuality; medical anthropology; visual anthropology; ethnographic film; urban Africa; religion; Uganda.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 261, African Women: Changing Ideals and Realities; AFRI 263, African Belief Systems: Religion and Philosophy in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Kenneth Broun
ksbroun@email.unc.eduHenry Brandis Professor, School of Law
Specialization: Civil procedure; evidence; professional responsibility; and trial advocacy.
Relevant Experience: Author of Black Lawyers, White Courts (Ohio Univ. Press) a book about the black lawyers of South Africa. Conducted training programs in trial advocacy in South Africa for the Black Lawyers Assocation of South Africa. Currently completing research for a book on the Rivonia trial of Nelson Mandela.
Emily Burrill
eburrill@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Women's Studies
Specialization: History of marriage and marriage-related practices in the border town of Sikasso, Mali (West Africa); midwifery and the recent history of bio-medical knowledge of women’s bodies in francophone Africa; women and citizenship rights in post-colonial Africa; the history of human rights, and French colonial history.
Relevant Courses Taught: WMST 237, African Gender History; WMST 289, Women and the Law in Africa and the Middle East; WMST 293, Gender and Imperialism; HIST 535, Women and Gender in African History.
Gina Chowa
chowa@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, School of Social Work
Specialization: International social and economic development; concept and measurement of poverty in Africa; poverty reduction and asset building in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Relevant Courses Taught: SOWO 570, Social Work Practice (Zambia).
Lisa Jones Christensen
lisa_christensen@unc.eduAssistant Professor, Kenan-Flagler Business School
Relevant Courses Taught: BUSI 513, Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Developing Economies.
Myron Cohen
myron_cohen@med.unc.eduJ. Herbert Bate Professor of Medicine, Chief Director of Microbiology & Immunology, UNC Center for Infectious Diseases
Specialization: Infectious diseases.
Relevant Experience: Associate Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs—Global Health, 2007 – present; Director, Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, 2007 – Present; Director, UNC NIH HIVNET; Director, UNC-FHI AIDS Technical Support Program, 1992-Present; Co-Director, UNC NIH Fogarty Center, 1998-Present; Associate Director, UNC-NIH Collaborative STD Center, 1991-Present; Associate Director, UNC Center for AIDS Research, 1998-present, Director, NIH STD Clinical Trials Network 1998-present; PI: NIH Merit Award, 7/01/05-6/30/2015, supporting ongoing investigation of the transmission of HIV; Advisor: NIH Fogarty International Training Grant, AIDS International Research and Training Program, training directed towards HIV/STD prevention in Cameroon, China and Malawi; 02/15/07-11/30/13, Malawi Clinical Trials Unit, UNC HPTN site in Malawi; ASC Advisory Board member.
Shauna Collier
colliers@email.unc.eduStone Center Librarian
Specialization: The Stone Center library focuses on the African American experience, Africa, and the African Diaspora, particularly the social sciences and humanities.
Patrick Conway
patrick_conway@unc.eduProfessor, Economics
Specialization: Problems of developing and transition economies, the impact of IMF adjustment programs on developing economies, international trade and finance.
Relevant Courses Taught: ECON 360, Survey of International and Development Economics; ECON 460, International Economics; ECON 560, Advanced International Economics; ECON 960, Seminar in International Economics; ECON 966, Seminar in Economic Development.
Amy Cooke
acooke@email.unc.eduLecturer, Environment and Ecology
Specialization: Political and human ecology in Eastern Africa, natural resources, agriculture and food security issues, and conservation.
Relevant Experience: 6 years in East Africa: Kenya 1993-1997: Agroforester, US Peace Corps/Kenya Tanzania 2001-3.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 266/ENST 490.001 Health, Population and Environment in Contemporary Africa; ENST 204, Seminar in Environmental Studies- Section Title: Community Based Conservation; ENST 490, Special Topics in Ecology- Section Title: The Conservation and Ecology of African Savannas.
Altha Cravey
cravey@unc.eduAssociate Professor, Geography
Specialization: Globalization and work; gender; international development; transnationality and transnational lives.
Relevant Courses Taught: GEOG 056, Local Places in a Globalizing World; GEOG 130, Geographical Issues in the Developing World; GEOG 452, Mobile Geographies: The Political Economy of Migration.
Sian Curtis
sian_curtis@unc.eduResearch Associate Professor, Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: International health; women's health; contraceptive use dynamics; monitoring and evaluation of international population, maternal and child health, and HIV/AIDS programs; international maternal health; infant mortality.
Relevant Courses Taught: MHCH 716, International Family Planning and Reproductive Health.
Robert Daniels
robert_daniels@unc.eduDistinguished Associate Professor, Anthropology
Specialization: Cultural anthropology, social systems, kinship and ethnicity in Africa; use of cybernetic and ecological models to anthropological data, particularly African ethnology; the relationships between individual minds and cultural patterns, age-set systems, (particularly their coordination across acephalous societies), ethnic boundaries, and the influence of the nature of information exchange on such social processes.
Relevant Courses Taught: ANTH 057, First Year Seminar: Today in Africa; ANTH 226, Peoples of Africa.
Sarah Dempsey
sedempse@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Communication Studies
Specialization: Communication, collaboration, and representation in relation to nonprofit, community-based, and gendered forms of organizing. Recent projects investigate the negotiation of accountability and grassroots representation by international NGOs, gendered representations of communication technologies, and the role of difference within transnational feminism.
Relevant Courses Taught: COMM 625, Communication and Nonprofits in the Global Context.
Patricia Dominguez
patricia@email.unc.eduHumanities Bibliographer, Academic Affairs Library
Specialization: Comparative literature.
Doria El Kerdany
elkerdan@email.unc.eduLecturer, Asian Studies
Specialization: Arabic language instruction.
Relevant Courses Taught: ARAB 203, ARAB 204, ARAB 305, ARAB 306 (Intermediate and Advanced Arabic).
Mohamed Abou El Seoud
Middle Eastern/African Studies Librarian, University LibrariesSpecialization: Resources related to Persian language countries and Northern and Western African countries.
Michael Emch
emch@unc.eduAssociate Professor, Geography
Specialization: Medical geography; spatial epidemiology.
Eugenia Eng
eugenia_eng@unc.eduProfessor, Health Behavior and Health Education, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Integration of community development and health education interventions in rural US and developing nations.
Relevant Courses Taught: HBHE 710, Community Capacity, Competence, and Power: Community-Based Participatory Action Research.
Carl Ernst
cernst@email.unc.eduWilliam R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor, Religious Studies
Specialization: Islamic Studies.
Relevant Courses Taught: RELI 180, Introduction to Islamic Civilization.
Terence Evens
tmevens@email.unc.eduProfessor, Anthropology
Specialization: Social anthropology; phenomenological anthropology; social theory; ethics.
Relevant Courses Taught: ANTH 146, The Nature of Moral Consciousness; ANTH 323, Magic, Ritual, and Belief.
Allasane Fall
afall@email.unc.eduLecturer, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: North-South Cooperation between sub-Saharan Africa (particularly francophone) and North America.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; WOLO 401, Elementary Wolof.
Donato Fhunsu
dfhunsu21@unc.eduLecturer, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: Comparative literature; African and African Diaspora Literatures (in English, Spanish, French and African languages); literature, religion and spirituality; language acquisition; language pedagogy; Bantu languages: Lingala, Kikongo; Romance languages: French, Spanish; language mediation (translation and interpreting).
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 262, The Literature of Africa; AFAM/AFRI 474, Key Issues in African and Afro-American Linkages; LGLA 401, Lingala I; LGLA 402, Lingala II; LGLA 403, Lingala III; LGLA 404, Lingala IV.
Dominique Fisher
domfisc@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Romance Languages
Specialization: Francophone Studies (The Maghreb, Quebec, and literatures migrantes), Fin-de-siecle literatures, Literary and cultural theory.
Relevant Courses Taught: ROML 054, Issues in Francophone Literature.
Greg Gangi
domfisc@email.unc.eduResearch Assistant Professor and Associate Director for Education, Institute for the Environment
Specialization: Experiential education; conservation; environmental policy.
Relevant Courses Taught: ENST 225H, Water Resource Management and Human Rights.
Suzanne Gulledge
sgulledg@email.unc.eduProfessor/Director International Social Studies Project and Middle Grades Teacher Education Program, School of Education
Specialization: Curriculum and instruction; social studies education.
Sudhanshu Handa
shanda@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Public Policy
Specialization: Household economic and demographic behavior in developing countries, particularly the role of public policy in conditioning household demographic choices; population and human resource economics; social policy and safety nets; applied development microeconomics; international development; poverty.
Relevant Experience: 2007-2008: Social Policy Advisor, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office, Nairobi, Kenya Regional advisor on social policy and economic issues for UNICEF in its Eastern & Southern Africa operations.
Relevant Courses Taught: PLCY 895, Poverty and Human Resources.
Mamie Sackey Harris
msackey@email.unc.eduAfrica Programs Manager, Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases
Relevant Experience: Emergency, Relief and Development operations and programs. Six + years professional engagement in Africa. Program Manager - Action Against Hunger (ACF - USA) Southern Sudan : Supplementary and Therapeutic feeding programs, Health Education, Community Based Nutrition, Food Security and Livelihoods. Associate Consultant(School Feeding and Education) World Food Program.
Relevant Courses Taught: PUBH 510, Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Global Health (co-lecturer).
Irving Hoffman
irving_hoffman@med.unc.eduAssociate Professor of Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Director of International Operations
Specialization: Infectious diseases; international research.
Relevant Experience: Director of the UNC Project in Malawi.
Donald Hornstein
dhornste@email.unc.eduAubrey L. Brooks Professor of Law, School of Law
Specialization: Environmental law; administrative law; insurance law; natural resources law; international rivers.
Nasser Isleem
nmisleem@email.unc.eduLecturer, Asian Studies
Specialization: Arabic language instruction and translation.
Relevant Courses Taught: Elementary, intermediate and conversational Arabic, including Egyptian dialect class.
Fatimah Jackson
fatimahj@email.unc.eduProfessor, Anthropology
Specialization: Human biological consequences of cultural choices, historic events, and environmental exposures; genetics; demographics history; dietary patterns; health disparities. Relevant Experience: Director of the Institute of African-American Research (IAAR); Genomic Models Research Group; Co-founded the first human DNA bank in Africa.
Pamela Jagger
pjagger@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Public Policy
Specialization: Environmental policy; environment and development; forests and livelihoods; institutions and governance; research design and methods; Sub-Saharan Africa.
Relevant Courses Taught: ENST/PLCY 520, Environment and Development; PLCY 799: Collaborative Research on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation.
Joseph Jordan
jfjordan@email.unc.eduDirector of the Sonya H. Stone Center for Black Culture and History; Associate Professor, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: African Diaspora in the Americas; black radical studies; African-American Studies (cultural politics) African Studies (politics of development); African Diaspora in the Americas; Diaspora art and cultural politics; Pan-Africanism in the Diaspora. Relevant Experience: Program development in Cape Verde and Senegal.
Charles Joukhadar
cjoukhad@email.unc.eduLecturer, Asian Studies
Specialization: Arabic language instruction.
Relevant Courses Taught: ARAB 101, ARAB 102, ARAB 203, ARAB 204 (Elementary and Intermediate Arabic).
Thomas Kelley
takelley@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, School of Law; Community Development Law Clinic
Specialization: African customary law and legal anthropology, the law of emerging nations, the law of non-profit organizations and philanthropy.
Relevant Courses Taught: LAW 457, African Law and Development.
Michael Lambert
mlambert@email.unc.eduDirector, African Studies Center; Associate Professor, African and Afro-American Studies; Adjunct Associate Professor, Anthropology
Specialization: Political anthropology, warfare, nationalism, migration, urbanization.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; AFRI 368, Political Protest and Conflict in Africa; AFRI 395, Field Research Methods in African Studies; AFRI 480, Ethnography of Africa; AFRI 522, West Africa: Society and Economy in the Twentieth Century.
Valerie Lambert
vlambert@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Anthropology
Specialization: Indigenous peoples, with a focus on American Indians of the U.S.
Relevant Experience: Ethnographic field research among the Nama and Khoi San tribes of southern Africa.
Relevant Courses Taught: ANTH 102, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology.
Christopher Lee
cjlee1@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, History
Specialization: Modern Southern Africa.
Relevant Experience: Fieldwork in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Mozambique.
Relevant Courses Taught: HIST 067, First-Year Seminar: Life Histories from 20th-Century South Africa; HIST 175H, Honors Seminar in Third World History; HIST 279 Modern South Africa; HIST 301, Screening History: Africa at the Movies; HIST 379, Race, Segregation, and Political Protest in South Africa and the U.S.; HIST 393, Undergraduate Seminar in History (Third World/Non-Western): Section Title-Race and Racism in the Modern World; HIST 540, African Intellectual History: Discourse, Knowledge, Politics; HIST 541, African Environmental History: Ecology, Economy, and Politics; HIST 542, Development in Africa and its Discontents; HIST 543, Histories of Health and Healing in Africa; HIST 722, Readings in Contemporary Global History; HIST 890, Topics in History for Graduates, Section Title: The Postcolonial World: History, Theory, Politics.
Margaret C. Lee
leemc@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: Africa and the international trade regime; Southern African politics; regional integration in Africa; African political economy.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; AFRI 265, Africa in the Global System; AFRI 540, 21st Century Scramble for Africa.
Donna LeFebvre
lefebvre@unc.eduSenior Lecturer/Director of Internships, Political Science
Specialization: International criminal court, crimes against humanity and war crimes; human rights; violence against women, U.S. and globally.
Relevant Courses Taught: POLI 449, Human Rights and International Criminal Law; Burch Field Research Seminar: Rwanda and The Hague: Study Abroad with 6 credit hours which transfer as HNRS 354/POLI 449 and HNRS 352/AFRI 520.
Paul Leslie
pwleslie@unc.eduProfessor and Chair, Anthropology; Curriculum in Ecology
Specialization: Biological anthropology; demography; pastoralism, especially in East Africa; the relationship among the demographic, socioeconomic, and biological characteristics of human populations, in an ecological context. Interdisciplinary study of human-environment interactions in Turkana, Kenya (1982-1999); population, land use, and livelihood diversification among Maasai in Northern Tanzania (1998- present); comparative study of consequences of parks and protected areas for livelihoods, land use, biodiversity, and conservation programs in East and southern Africa (2003-present).
Lisa Lindsay
lalindsa@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, History
Specialization: Social history of colonial Africa; the Atlantic slave trade; the African Diaspora; Nigeria.
Relevant Experience: Directed a UNC study abroad program in Cape Town, South Africa, Fall 2008.
Relevant Courses Taught: HIST 130, Africa in the Twentieth Century: Transformations in Culture and Power; HIST 176H, Honors Seminar in Third World History; HIST 278, The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; HIST 292H, Topics in History- The U.S. and Africa; HIST 393, Undergraduate Seminar in History (Third World/Non-Western) Section Title: Africa Since 1940; HIST 534: The African Diaspora; HIST 535, Women and Gender in African History.
Esther Mukewa Lisanza
lisanza@email.unc.eduLecturer, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: Literacy development among second language learners.
Relevant Experience: Examination of how Kenyan children participate in speaking, reading and writing practices in English and Swahili.
Relevant Courses Taught: SWAH 401, Elementary Kiswahili; AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa.
Scott Madry
madrys@email.unc.eduResearch Associate Professor, Anthropology
Specialization: Applications of Geomatics (remote sensing, GIS, GPS, and spatial analysis) for regional cultural and environmental studies. Archaeological predictive modeling, regional environmental analysis, gorilla habitat research.
Relevant Experience: Projects in Africa (Mountain gorillas in Rwanda and work for the Kenya Wildlife Service).
Carol Magee
cmagee@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Art
Specialization: History of contemporary and traditional African art; How Americans come to know and understand Africa through US culture (museums, artists, media, toys, etc); African photography.
Relevant Courses Taught: ART 155, African Art Survey; ART 255, African Art and Culture; ART 353, African Masquerades and Ritual; ART 453, Africa in the American Imagination; ART 487, African Impulse in African African-American Art; ART 488, Contemporary African Art; ART 957, Graduate Seminar in African Art: African Modernisms.
Suzanne Maman
maman@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Public Health; HIV/AIDS; Sub-Saharan Africa.
Relevant Courses Taught: HBHE 753, Qualitative Research Methods.
Dale McKinley
drdalet@metroweb.co.zaAdjunct Associate Professor, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: National liberation strategies and tactics of the African National Congress; United States foreign policy with South Africa; Effects of globalization and privatization Sub-Saharan Africa.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 265, Africa in the Global System (online; taught from South Africa).
Joseph Megel
megel@email.unc.edu Lecturer, Communication StudiesRelevant Experience: Research in Tanzania.
Benjamin Meier
meierb@email.unc.eduAdjunct Assistant Professor, Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Global health policy; Health services and systems regulation; law and ethics of public health research; health and human rights; international and comparative public health law; globalization, development and public policy for health; health organizations and institutions; health care reform. Relevant Courses Taught: PLCY 590, Special Topics in Public Policy- Section Title: Global Health Policy; Health and Human Rights (Fall 2010).
Steven Meshnick
meshnick@email.unc.eduProfessor, Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Malaria; Mother-to-child transmission of HIV; African trypanosomiasis, surveillance; AIDS-associated opportunistic infections.
Relevant Experience: Oversees program in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Malawi in Blantyre, and the Fogarty International Training Grant which sponsors students in the program.
Relevant Courses Taught: EPID 756, Control of Infectious Diseases in Developing Countries.
Margaret Miles
mmiles@email.unc.eduResearch Professor, School of Nursing
Specialization: African American women with HIV; health disparity research; parents of infants and children with serious health problems; mothers with preterm infants; bereavement in widows whose husbands died of HIV in Cameroon; African American custodial grandparents.
William Miller
Bill_Miller@unc.eduAssociate Professor; Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: International health; sexually transmitted diseases; women's health.
Alphonse Mutima
smutima@email.unc.eduAdjunct Assistant Professor; African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: Kiswahili curriculum development; pedagogy; second language acquisition; language variation.
Relevant Courses Taught: SWAH 112, Intensive Kiswahili 1-2; SWAH 234, Intensive Kiswahili 3-4; SWAH 401, Elementary Kiswahili I; SWAH 402, Elementary Kiswahili II; SWAH 403, Intermediate Kiswahili III; SWAH 404, Intermediate Kiswahili IV; SWAH 405, Advanced Kiswahili V; SWAH 406, Advanced Kiswahili Plus.
Georges Nzongola
nzongola@email.unc.eduProfessor, African and Afro-American Studies
Specialization: African politics, with emphasis on the political history of Africa since 1956; governance, with particular interest in the theory and practice of democratic governance; and development policy and administration, with emphasis on African economic development.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; AFRI 190, Topics in African Studies; AFRI 396, Independent Study; AFRI 523, Central Africa: The Politics of Development.
Bobbi Owen
owenbob@unc.eduProfessor, Dramatic Art
Specialization: Costume history; traditional dress in Africa and Asia; theatrical design and designers.
Relevant Courses Taught: DRAM 475, Costume History: Africa, Asia, and Arabia.
Max Owre
owre@email.unc.eduLecturer, History
Specialization: Global history.
Relevant Courses Taught: HIST 130, Africa in the Twentieth Century: Transformations in Culture and Power; HIST 292 Sections: France and Sub-Saharan Africa, France and Algeria.
Kathy Perkins
kaperkin@email.unc.eduProfessor, Department of Dramatic Art
Specialization: Africa/African Diaspora Theatre, Multi-Ethnic Theatre, Lighting Design.
Audrey Pettifor
apettif@email.unc.eduResearch Instructor, Epidemiology
Specialization: HIV prevention among young women in South Africa; HIV prevention interventions for young couples in South Africa; structural interventions for HIV prevention; behaviors of individuals with Acute HIV Infection and behavioral interventions for the acute period; and prevention interventions for HIV infected individuals and youth.
Relevant Courses Taught: EPID 756, Control of Infectious Diseases in Developing Countries.
John Pickles
jpickles@unc.eduDistinguished Professor and Chair, Geography
Specialization: Regional and global political economy; post-socialist and post-apartheid economic change; apparel industry; global and transnational Europe.
Relevant Courses Taught: INTS 210, Global Issues in the 20th Century.
David Pier
dpier@email.unc.eduSpecialization: African Music; Politics of Cultural Production in Africa; History and Culture of Uganda; Ethnomusicology; Jazz and Afro-American Art Music; Music of the Caribbean; Hip Hop and Popular Music of the U.S.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 190, Topics in African Studies: Music in Africa
Barry Popkin
popkin@unc.eduProfessor, Nutrition, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Economic and epidemiological analysis of trends in dietary intake, physical activity and body composition around the world; Nutrition Transition research; obesity economics and epidemiology.
Relevant Courses Taught: NUTR 745, International Nutrition.
Monica Rector
rector@email.unc.eduProfessor, Romance Languages
Specialization: Luso-Brazilian literature, language and culture, female writers, semiotics and non-verbal communication, Brazil, Portugal; Lusophone African Literature.
Relevant Courses Taught: PORT 388, Portuguese, Brazilian, and African Identities in Film.
Peter Redfield
redfield@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Anthropology
Specialization: Technology and society; colonial history and postcolonial relations; nonprofit organizations and transnational experts; humanitarianism and human rights; Europe, French Guiana, Uganda.
Relevant Courses Taught: ANTH 280, Anthropology of War and Peace; ANTH 422, Anthropology of Human Rights.
Stuart Rennie
stuart_rennie@dentistry.unc.eduResearch Assistant Professor, Dental Ecology
Specialization: Research ethics and bioethics in the developing world.
Relevant Experience: Qualitative research on community attitudes in Kinshasa (DR Congo) towards rationing of AIDS treatment, funded by Center for AIDS research (2005); Project manager of NIH/Fogarty Bioethics Award (2004-2012); Ethics consultant on UNC-Global AIDS Program activities in DR Congo and Madagascar; Lead writer, Ethics Guidance for the HIV Prevention Trials Network (2009).
Relevant Courses Taught: EPID 898, Global Health Ethics Seminar.
Andrew Reynolds
asreynol@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, Political Science
Specialization: Democratic design; ethnic conflict; plural societies; Africa.
Relevant Courses Taught: POLI 067, Designing Democracy; POLI 131, Political Change and Modernization; POLI 431, African Politics and Society.
Paul Roberge
ptr@email.unc.eduProfessor, Germanic Languages; Linguistics
Specialization: Historical linguistics; pidgin and creole languages; language and society; Germanic languages; Afrikaans.
Relevant Courses Taught: GERM 125, 240 Afrikaans I, II; GERM 252, South Africa in Literary Perspective; LING 542, Pidgins and Creoles.
Richard Rosen
rich_rosen@unc.eduProfessor and Senior Associate Dean, School of Law
Specialization: Criminal law.
Relevant Experience: Fulbright Lecturer-University of Asmara, Eritrea. (1995-1996); Consultant-drafting of Eritrean Criminal Procedure Code. (1998-2005).
Omid Safi
omid@email.unc.eduProfessor, Religious Studies
Specialization: Islamic Studies with a focus on Iran, Turkey, and United States; Medieval Iranian Islam; Modern Islamic thought.
Relevant Courses Taught: RELI 181, Later Islamic Civilization and Modern Muslim Cultures.
Eunice Sahle
eunice@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor and Chair, African and Afro-American Studies and International Studies
Specialization: International political economy; international relations; comparative political economy of development.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; AFRI 265, Africa in the Global System; AFRI 375, Politics of Cultural Production in Africa; AFRI 416, Human Rights and Social Justice Movements in Africa; INTS 210, Global Issues in the Twentieth Century; INTS 405, Comparative Political Economics of Development.
Mamarame Seck
mseck@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, African and African-American Studies
Specialization: Wolof language instruction and curriculum development; Wolof language and literature; African linguistics; Sufi Islam in West Africa; Wolof oral discourse.
Relevant Experience: Wolof consultant for Centre for Text Technology North-West University, South Africa. This project is a part of Microsoft’s Local Language Program, a global initiative to provide desktop software and tools to their customers by collaborating with local experts (governments, universities, and other interested parties); Wolof instructor at SCALI (Summer Cooperative African Language Institute); participant at workshop on Standards/Curriculum development and Evaluation guidelines at the National African Language Resource Center (NALRC), University of Wisconsin, Madison as co-writer of Wolof standards.
Relevant Courses Taught: WOLO 401, Elementary Wolof I; WOLO 402 Elementary Wolof 2; WOLO 403, Intermediate Wolof 3; WOLO 404 Intermediate Wolof 4.
Friederike Seeger
fseeger@unc.eduDirector, Burch Programs & Honors Study Abroad
Specialization: International program mangement and development.
Relevant Experience: Honors program development and management in South Africa, Botswana, Rwanda, and Uganda.
Bereket Selassie
bselassi@email.unc.eduWilliam E. Luchtenburg Professor of African Studies and Professor of Law
Specialization: African law, politics, and history; law and development; constitutional law; politics of development; international law of human rights.
Relevant Courses Taught: AFRI 050, First-Year Seminar: Kings, Presidents, and Generals: Africa’s Bumpy Road to Democracy; AFRI 101, Introduction to Africa; AFRI 370, Policy Problems in African Studies; AFAM/AFRI 474, Key Issues in African and Afro-American Linkages; AFRI 524, North-East Africa.
Sarah Shields
sshields@email.unc.eduAssociate Professor, History
Specialization: Nationalism in the Middle East; Islamic civilization; Middle East history; economic and social history of the Ottoman Arab provinces.
Relevant Courses Taught: HIST 138, Introduction to Islamic Civilization; HIST 139, Later Islamic Civilization and the Modern Muslim World; HIST 202, Borders and Crossings; HIST 276, Modern Middle East; HIST 890, Graduate Seminar- Section Title: Diversity and Conformity in Muslim Societies.
Kavita Singh-Ongechi
singhk@email.unc.eduResearch Assistant Professor, Maternal and Child Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Relevant Experience: Research Associate, MEASURE Evalution; Program Manager for Primary Health Care, IRC South Sudan Program, Kenya; Research Fellow, Harvard University/Muhimbili College of Health Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Consultant, Brookings Institute/Center for Refugee and Disaster Studies; Researcher, The Demography of Forced Migration Project.
Relevant Courses Taught: MHCH 722, Issues in International Maternal and Child Health.
Jennifer S. Smith
jsssmith@email.unc.eduResearch Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Infectious disease and reproductive health epidemiology, with a particular focus on human papillomavirus and herpes simplex virus type-2; studies of HPV in less-developed countries.
Ronald Strauss
ron_strauss@unc.eduDistinguished Professor and Chair, Dental Ecology; Social Medicine
Specialization: Social research related to stigma, social responses to disease, craniofacial conditions and HIV/AIDS, icluding work in Malawi; Malawi Dental Project.
James Thomas
jim_thomas@unc.eduAssociate Professor, Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Specialization: Social epidemiology, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, public health ethics.
Relevant Experience: HIV research in Niger (2005-06) Study of monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2006-2008); Pandemic influenza ethics in Africa (2008- ); Agency networks for HIV treatment in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa (2008-2010). Relevant Courses Taught: EPID 898, Global Health Ethics Seminar.
Charles Van der Horst
charles_vanderhorst@med.unc.eduProfessor, Medicine; Associate Director, Division of Infectious Diseases
Specialization: HIV in Africa, primarily Malawi and South Africa; the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV.
Relevant Experience: Principal investigator of a CDC-funded study examining the factors influencing the morbidity of HIV positive women who are breast feeding in Malawi; supervises the prevention of mother to child transmission program at the Lilongwe District Health Centers; co-investigator of an NIAID/CIPRA grant to create a consortium of three medical schools in South Africa to conduct HIV and Infectious Diseases translational and clinical research.
Annelies Van Rie
vanrie@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: International health, tuberculosis, HIV, pediatric HIV care.
Gretchen Van Vliet
Gretchen_VanVliet@unc.eduAdjunct Assistant Professor, Gillings School of Global Public Health; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Public Health Leadership Program
Specialization: Director of the Office of Global Health, which provides a centralized location to facilitate individual and collaborative global health efforts by faculty and students.
Relevant Courses Taught: PUBH 510, Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Global Health.
Rodney Vargas
rvargas@email.unc.eduStudy Abroad Director.
Richard Vernon
rmvernon@email.unc.eduLecturer, Romance Languages
Specialization: Street literature/Children’s literature, Portuguese and Spanish language instruction.
Relevant Courses Taught: PORT 385, Luso-African Literature in Translation.
Sharon Weir
sharon_weir@unc.eduResearch Assistant Professor, Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health
Specialization: Africa, AIDS prevention and trends.
Relevant Experience: HIV-Prevalence Study in Malawi (DFID); Ghana PLACE Study (USAID/Ghana); Co-Principal Investigator: Ongoing Research through MEASURE: Zimbabwe PLACE Study: Focus on Orphans (UNICEF & USAID/Washington)
Relevant Courses Taught: EPID 690, Problems in Epidemiology, section title: HIV in Developing Countries; EPID 757, Epidemiology of HIV/AIDS in Developing Countries.
Colin West
ctw@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Anthropology
Specialization: Societal adaptation to global environmental change, particularly among Mossi farming communities in Burkina Faso.
Relevant Courses Taught: ANTH 238, Human Ecology of Africa; ENST 567, Ecological Analysis and Application.
Dale Whittington
dale_whittington@unc.eduProfessor, Environmental Sciences & Engineering, Gillings School of Global Public Health; City and Regional Planning.
Specialization: Water and sanitation planning in developing countries; environmental policy.
Relevant Courses Taught: PLAN 685 (ENVR 685), Water and Sanitation Planning and Policy in Lesser Developed Countries.
Nadia Yaqub
yaqub@email.unc.eduAssistant Professor, Asian Studies; Arabic
Specialization: Oral Arabic poetry; modern Arabic literature; classical Arabic literature; Arabic linguistics; Modern Arabic literature and film.
Relevant Courses Taught: Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Arabic; ARAB 453, Film, Nation, and Identity in the Arab World; ARAB 150, Introduction to Arab Culture; ARAB 434, Modern Arabic Literature in Translation.
