Four Black Scholars Taking on New Faculty Roles in Higher Education

Valerie Babb was appointed the Andrew Mellon Professor of the Humanities at Emory University in Atlanta. She holds a joint appointment in the departments of African American studies and English. She has served on the faculty at the University of Georgia and Georgetown University. Dr. Babb is the author of A History of the African American Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Whiteness Visible: The Meaning of Whiteness in American Literature and Culture (New York University Press, 1998).

Professor Babb is a graduate of Queens College of the City University of New York. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System.

Amadu Jacky Kaba has been promoted to full professor of sociology at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He joined the faculty there in 2005 and was promoted to associate professor in 2011. His most recent book is The Black American Gender Gaps: American Citizenship, Educational Attainment, and National Leadership Positions (Pan-African University Press, 2018).

Professor Kaba holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, a master of public administration degree, and a Ph.D. in higher education leadership, management and policy, all from Seton Hall University.

Kimberly Hardy, an assistant professor of social work at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, was elected president of the Society for Spirituality and Social Work. Before joining the faculty at Fayetteville State University, Dr. Hardy taught at the University of Connecticut and the University of Saint Joseph in Connecticut.

Dr. Hardy holds a bachelor’s degree and a doctorate in social work from Morgan State University in Baltimore. She earned a master of social work degree at Ohio State University.

Emilie Diouf is a new assistant professor of English at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Her research expertise is in Anglophone and Francophone postcolonial African literatures and film.

Dr. Diouf is a native of Senegal and graduate of Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Michigan State University.

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