Culture — �鶹Ƶ��University News

Vlad Dima

Ellen Mbuqe — Fri, 10 Mar 2023 19:35:57 +0000

Vlad Dima is Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies at �鶹Ƶ��University. He has published numerous articles, mainly on French and francophone cinemas, but also on Francophone literature, comics, American cinema, and television. He is the author of the following books:��(Indiana University Press, 2017),��(Michigan State University Press, 2020), and��(Michigan State University Press, 2022).

Professor Dima can discuss issues with African cinema, French Cinema with a focus on New Wave, film theory, the films of Alfred Hitchcock, American auteur cinema such as Tarantino films, television studies, theater of the absurd, and zombies.�� He also teaches a course about soccer in Africa.

Bernard Appiah

Valerie Pietra — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 19:25:27 +0000

Bernard Appiah joined the Public Health Department as assistant professor in fall 2020. He is director of the Research Program on Health Communication and Public Engagement (H-COPE) within the Public Health Department. H-COPE has research collaborations in New York state, nationally and globally.

Prior to joining �鶹Ƶ��University, Appiah was assistant professor at Texas A&M University’s School of Public Health in the Departments of Environmental and Occupational Health and Public Health Studies. He was the founding director of the Research Program on Public and International Engagement for Health.

Previously, Appiah served as a drug information pharmacist/publications manager at the National Drug Information Resource Centre (NDIRC) for the Ministry of Health in Ghana. He has taught courses such as environmental and occupational health communication, social context of population health, and comparative global health systems.

Herb Ruffin II

Ellen Mbuqe — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 21:27:18 +0000

Herb Ruffin is Associate Professor of African American Studies at �鶹Ƶ��University.�� He holds a Ph.D. in American History from Claremont Graduate University, California. His research examines the African American experiences in Silicon Valley (California), San Antonio (Texas), and in particular, the process of Black suburbanization in the American West from 1945-2010.�� Professor Ruffin’s book��. In addition, he has authored numerous articles, book reviews, and online academic publications that focus on African Diaspora History and Culture, the Black West, Urban Studies and Social Movements. He has also been an active consultant in regard to organizing curriculum, public exhibits, and historical presentations on Africa and African Diaspora history and culture, including work with the Smithsonian Institution, Africa Initiative, and serving as U.S. Historian Delegate to South Africa.

Kendall Phillips

Keith Kobland — Wed, 12 Jul 2017 23:50:04 +0000

Kendall Phillips’ research and teaching interests are in contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism. His work engages broad theoretical questions of advocacy, controversy, dissent, and public memory. He explores these concepts through a variety of rhetorical artifacts, including comic books, film, political speeches, and scientific controversies. Phillips is the author of “Testing Controversies: A Rhetoric of Educational Reform” and “Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture.” He is the editor of “Framing Public Memory.”

In the fall of 2017, Professor Phillips is teaching a class on President Donald Trump as a pop culture figure. Professor Phillips explains in the video below.

Selected Publications:

Phillips, Kendall (2012). Dark Directions: Romero, Craven, Carpenter, and the Modern Horror Film. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Phillips, Kendall, & Reyes, Mitchell (2011). Global Memoryscapes: Contesting Remembrance in a Transnational Age. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press.

Phillips, K. R. (2008). Controversial Cinema: The Films that Outraged America. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Phillips, K. R. Ed. (2005). Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture. Westport, CT: Praeger Press.

Phillips, K. R. Ed. (2004). Framing Public Memory. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press.

Phillips, K. R. (2004). Testing Controversy: A Rhetoric of Educational Reform. Cresskill, N. J.: Hampton Press.

David Yaffe

Ellen Mbuqe — Fri, 24 Feb 2017 21:07:10 +0000

David Yaffe is a nationally renowned arts critic and assistant professor of humanities in �鶹Ƶ��University’s College of Arts and Sciences,��

He is the author of (Princeton, 2006) and (Yale, 2011). He is currently at work on Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, forthcoming). ��He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on 20th�� and 21st Century American fiction, poetry, music, and creative nonfiction.�� He is a music critic for The Nation and has also written for Harper’s, Slate, The New York Times, New York, The Village Voice, The New Republic, Bookforum, The Chronicle of Higher Education Review, and other publications.

Jennifer Grygiel

Leibowitz Vendor Account — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 19:53:20 +0000

Jennifer Grygiel is a social media expert with up-to-the minute understanding of the technology. They most recently served as social business and emerging media manager and assistant vice president at State Street Corporation in Boston. There, Prof. Grygiel developed a social listening and marketing data and analytics program and was the lead project manager for the Social Intranet Project, which received an IABC Gold Quill Merit Award. Their social listening work has also been recognized and received a Gold Wommy for Social Media Monitoring Implementation from Womma (Word of Mouth Marketing Association).

Over the course of Prof. Grygiel’s��career, they have served as the executive director for public affairs and communications and chief of staff at the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based nonpartisan research organization dedicated to improving the regulation of financial markets. Prof. Grygiel has also worked at the Program on International Financial Systems at Harvard Law School and is the founder of No Gay Left Behind, which advocates for the development of virtual gay-straight alliances (VGSAs) via social media.