The Politics and History Department is thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr. Melissa Anyiwo as a new member of the department and as coordinator of the newly-created African American Studies Minor. Dr. Anyiwo comes to us from the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga, where she served as coordinator of the Africana Minor Program from 2002-2007. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Wales Swansea, writing her dissertation on the dominant stereotypical images of African American women—“Mammy” and “Jezebel”—from the sixteenth century to the present.
Dr. Anyiwo’s appointment marks the launch of the much-anticipated African American Studies Minor. The minor will include Introduction to African American Studies, and offer an interdisciplinary selection of courses that reflect on the African American experience. We are all excited that Dr. Anyiwo is coming to Curry, and look forward to her program’s development and growth as well as her contributions to the Politics and History Department.