Seminars

President  Ben Vinson III (November 13, 2023)

Ben Vinson III, PhD is the 18th president of Howard University and a tenured professor of history in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. As president, he is tasked with inspiring, innovating, and strategically leading the Howard community which includes undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff. 

President Vinson was most recently provost and executive vice president at Case Western Reserve University. During his tenure, Dr. Vinson spearheaded the university’s “Think Big” strategic planning initiative, which received national attention for its innovative and inclusive planning process. He also worked to increase collaboration and entrepreneurship on campus by naming an associate provost to the post of interprofessional education, research and collaborative practice; and by appointing a founding director for the Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship.  He was co-principal investigator of the Humanities in Leadership Learning Series (HILLS) program, funded by a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to promote leadership development and diversity in the humanities. 

Dr. Vinson is an accomplished historian of Latin America, and the recipient of the 2019 Howard F. Cline Book Prize in Mexican History for his book, “Before Mestizaje: The Frontiers of Race and Caste in Colonial Mexico.”

He is the immediate past chairman of the board of the National Humanities Center and a member of the board of the National Humanities Alliance. He is a previous board member of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. He is a member of the Academy of Arts and Science’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, and currently chairs its subcommittee on higher education. He was elected vice president of the research division of the American Historical Association (AHA) in 2020, and is the current president-elect of the American Historical Association (2023). He is the immediate past president of the Conference on Latin American History (CLAH). 

Additionally, Dr. Vinson served on the Association of American Universities’ (AAU) Advisory Board for Racial Equity in Higher Education, and is a former member of the AAU subcommittee on faculty advancement and tenure.

Prior to his appointments at Howard and CWRU, Dr. Vinson also served on the faculties of Barnard College and Penn State before joining Johns Hopkins as a professor of history and founding director of its Center for Africana Studies. At Johns Hopkins, he served as a vice dean for centers, interdisciplinary studies and graduate education before becoming dean of George Washington University's Columbian College of Arts and Sciences. 

Dr. Vinson earned a bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and a doctorate from Columbia University. He has been awarded fellowships from the Fulbright Commission; National Humanities Center; Social Science Research Council; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the Ford, Rockefeller, and Mellon foundations. 

Drs. Bakari-Walton and Muhammad (November 6, 2023)

 Session recaps.

Dr. Tia Tyree (Oct 30, 2023)

Professor of Communication Studies

Dr. Tia C. M. Tyree is a Professor at Howard University and Program Director for the Graduate and Teaching Associates Development Program. She teaches graduate and undergraduate communications courses with a focus on strategic communications, social media and African Americans. Her research interests include hip hop, rap, reality television, film, social media as well as African-American and female representations in media. She has several published book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in journals, such as those in Women and Language; Howard Journal of Communications; Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism; Journal of Black Studies and the International Journal of Emergency Management. She is the author of The Interesting and Incredibly Long History of American Public Relations and coeditor of HBCU Experience – The Book, Social Media: Pedagogy and Practice as well as Social Media: Culture and Identity. She is also cofounder of the Social Media Technology Conference and Workshop, which is a conference designed to bring both professionals and academicians together to discuss cutting-edge research and trends in social media.

Other attendees:
Dr. Melvin  Williams
Allison Miller
Hassan Burke
Manotti Jenkins

Dr. Danda Rawat (Oct 23, 2023)

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning for Emerging Systems and Applications: The Triumph and Tribulation

Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies, College of Engineering and Architecture

Dr. Danda B. Rawat serves as the Executive Director/PI of the Research Institute for Tactical Autonomy (RITA), a US Department of Defense sponsored University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) focused on Tactical Autonomy. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (EECS), Associate Dean for Research & Graduate Studies (CEA), Founding Director of the Howard University Data Science & Cybersecurity Center, Founding Director of DoD Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning (CoE-AIML), Director of Cyber-security and Wireless Networking Innovations (CWiNs) Research Lab, Graduate Program Director of Howard CS Graduate Programs and Director of Graduate Cybersecurity Certificate Program at Howard University, Washington, DC, USA. Dr. Rawat is engaged in research and teaching in the areas of cybersecurity, machine learning, big data analytics and wireless networking for emerging networked systems including cyber-physical systems (eHealth, energy, transportation), Internet-of-Things, multi domain operations, smart cities, software defined systems and vehicular networks. He has secured over $110 million as a PI and over $18 million as a Co-PI in research funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), US National Security Agency (NSA), US Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), National Institute of Health (NIH), DoD and DoD Research Labs, Industry (Microsoft, Intel, vmWare, PayPal, Mastercard, Meta, BAE, Raytheon etc.) and private Foundations. Dr. Rawat is the recipient of NSF CAREER Award in 2016, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Scientific Leadership Award in 2017, Presidents’ Medal of Achievement at Howard University (2023), Provost's Distinguished Service Award 2021, ​Researcher Exemplar Award 2019 and Graduate Faculty Exemplar Award 2019 from Howard University, the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Summer Faculty Visiting Fellowship 2017, Outstanding Research Faculty Award (Award for Excellence in Scholarly Activity) at GSU in 2015, the Best Paper Awards (IEEE CCNC, IEEE ICII, IEEE DroneCom and BWCA) and Outstanding PhD Researcher Award in 2009. He has delivered over 50 Keynotes and invited speeches at international conferences and workshops. Dr. Rawat has published over 200 scientific/technical articles and 11 books. Dr. Rawat has published over 200 scientific/technical articles and 10 books. He has been serving as an Editor/Guest Editor for over 50 international journals including the Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions of Service Computing, Editor of IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions of Network Science and Engineering and Technical Editors of IEEE Network. He has been in Organizing Committees for several IEEE flagship conferences such as IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE CNS, IEEE ICC, IEEE GLOBECOM and so on. He served as a technical program committee (TPC) member for several international conferences including IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE CCNC, IEEE GreenCom, IEEE ICC, IEEE WCNC and IEEE VTC conferences. He served as a Vice Chair of the Executive Committee of the IEEE Savannah Section from 2013 to 2017. Dr. Rawat received the Ph.D. degree from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. Dr. Rawat is a Senior Member of IEEE and ACM, a member of ASEE and AAAS, and a Fellow of ​​the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). He is an ACM Distinguished Speaker (2021- 2023). 

Dr. Sandra Jeter (Kalu) (Oct 23, 2023)

Mental Health

Dr. Gladys M. Francis (Oct 16, 2023)

Experiential Learning Abroad

Associate Dean for Academic Student Affairs & The Humanities.  Professor of Africana, French and Francophone Studies
gladysm.francis@howard.edu

Dr. Gladys M. Francis serves as Associate Dean for Academic Student Affairs and the Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University. In this role, she also establishes infrastructures to support experiential learning to ensure that all the students in the College of Arts and Sciences benefit fully from Howard’s location in the nation’s capital as well as globally.

Associate Dean Francis is a native of Guadeloupe. As Professor of Africana, French, and Francophone Studies, Dr. Francis explores issues of identify formation, race, gender, trauma, and cohesive intercultural immersion through the arts. Her transdisciplinary research involves: Theory and cultural Studies; Africana Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Visual and Media Studies; Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

Dr. Francis counts numerous invited lectures, interviews, workshops and consulting across the globe to present her scholarship and her efforts on issues of community activism, diversity, equity, social justice and inclusion. She has fundraised approximately 5 million dollars to: create network technology and digital education initiatives; facilitate, promote, and disseminate innovative and collaborative research; develop consortia of cooperation with international stakeholders that offer career preparedness, internships, and global research opportunities to students, faculty and staff.

She is the recipient of numerous research grants and awards (i.e., two Endowed Weber Chairs in the Humanities; several Outstanding Teaching Awards; the 2019 Outstanding Faculty Diversity Award); various research fellowships (in Africa, the Caribbean, and Europe), several honorary visiting professorships (in Europe and South America), and a Digital Champions Fellowship. She received the 2023 Distinguished Purdue Alumni Scholars Award (from Purdue University's Office of the Provost and the Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence). She is named Patron of the 2023 Guy Tirolien Prize for Literary Excellence rewarding the ten best winners in the literary sector of the Guadeloupe Academy, while promoting a legacy of renown Caribbean writers. Previous patrons (parrains/marraines) counted Patrick Chamoiseau, Dany Laferrière, Ernest Pépin, Gisèle Pineau, and Simone Schwarz-Bart. 

Associate Dean Francis counts over forty articles on her research interests. Her books include Amour, sexe, genre et trauma dans la Caraïbe francophone  (L’Harmattan, 2016), Odious Caribbean Women: The Palpable Aesthetics of Transgression (Lexington Books, 2017), Epopée Créole : Histoires en transgression (L’Harmattan, fall 2022), and Fabienne Kanor in Transgression (forthcoming 2023).

Tonija Hope (Oct 16, 2023)
Director of The Ralph J. Bunche Center
https://global.howard.edu/ralph-j-bunche/staff/tonija-navas/ 

Tonija Hope Navas brings over 19 years of experience in the international exchange, international education, and management fields to the Ralph Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University. After completing her BA in Latin American Studies & Latin American/Spanish Literature from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, Ms. Navas moved to South Africa where she worked with a professor at the University of Cape Town to develop mechanisms to encourage exchange among international and South African students. Ms. Navas returned to the US to earn her Master’s degree in Tourism Administration with a focus on International Education from George Washington University in Washington, DC. After completing her Master’s, Ms. Navas joined the DC-based international non-profit, Phelps Stokes Fund, where she worked on the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program and became involved with other initiatives of the organization, like the Ralph Bunche Societies, and the creation of the Collaborative for Diversity in Education Abroad. Ms. Navas was later promoted to Director of Programs for Latin America and the Caribbean, where she oversaw a variety of projects focusing on youth leadership development in Afro-descendant communities, primarily in Colombia, with thematic lenses such as comparative legal frameworks and workforce development in the health sector.

Tyler Smith (Oct 16, 2023)

Honor's Political Science and International Affairs Double Major, Computer Science Minor.    Studied Abroad in Dublin, Ireland (1 month) and Taipei, Taiwan (8 months).  Career Goals: U.S. Foreign Service Officer (Diplomat), Technology Policy-Maker 

 Maya Hadley (Oct 16, 2023)

Political Science and Spanish double major, International Affairs Minor Studied Abroad in

Oaxaca, Mexico; Murcia, Spain; and Cali, Colombia.  Hopes to work in the Foreign Service after getting a Master's degree. Focus is primarily on international development policy and global diplomacy.  She is currently the Chair of Ambassadors for the Ralph J. Bunche Center Student Organization.   She strives to help encourage students to study abroad, while connecting them with a network and resources to help facilitate their transition to studying overseas.

Oluwatobi Aderotoye (Oct 16, 2023)

Holds bachelor's degrees in Chemistry and Political Science with a minor in Mathematics from HU.  Currently obtaining a Masters in Chemistry.  Tobi studied and volunteered abroad in Accra, Ghana; and Berlin, Germany.  Tobi will pursue an MD-PhD to treat patients and investigate some of our most prevalent illnesses/diseases to develop appropriate treatments.

Ariella Williams

Dr. Ruiz-Washington (Oct 2, 2023)
Destagmatizing Mental Health

Clinical Psychologist

University Counseling Services
kratel.ruiz-washingt@howard.edu 

Dr. Ruiz-Washington joined the staff at HUCS in November 2023. She obtained her doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Psy.D.) from The American School of Professional Psychology and her undergraduate work with Pennsylvania State University. Prior to coming to the UCS team, Dr. Ruiz-Washington provided therapeutic services in community mental health facilities. She is passionate about providing mental health services to communities/populations that may have limited access to care and related stigmas regarding mental health. It has always been her dream to have the opportunity to work with youth of color in an academic setting. Dr. Ruiz-Washington loves music and dancing, and you can often find her quoting a song in conversation or dancing to her next location. 

Brandon Hogan (Oct 2, 2023)

Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy

https://www.brandonhogan.net/

Brandon Hogan is an associate professor of philosophy. He earned a BA from Howard University, JD from Harvard Law School, and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh. His current writing focuses on theories of criminal punishment, reparations for American slavery, and the connections between hip-hop and philosophy. 

 Marilyn Sephocle (Oct 2, 2023)

Professor
World Languages & Cultures

 Carolette Norwood (Oct 2, 2023)

Professor and Department Head of Sociology and Criminology
Criminology & Sociology

Carolette Norwood is Professor and Department Head of Sociology and Criminology at Howard University. Dr. Norwood is a Black Feminist Sociologist whose research explores the implication of violence (structural, spatial, and interpersonal) at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and space on reproductive and sexual health injustice for Black women. Dr. Norwood’s work is published in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, Journal of Black Psychology, The American Journal of Public Health, The American Journal of Health Studies, Journal of Asian and African Studies, Journal of International Women's Studies, Development in Practice, Sociology Compass, etc. Dr. Norwood is currently writing a first book tentatively entitled: “Jim Crow Geographies: Mapping the Intersections of Gender, Race, and Sexuality in Urbane Space.”

 Msia Clark (Oct 2, 2023)

Associate Professor
African Studies

https://msiakibonaclark.com/ 

Dr. Msia Kibona Clark is an Associate Professor of African cultural & feminist studies in the Department of African Studies at Howard University. Her work explores the role of cultural representations in presenting narratives that shape identities and perceptions around race, gender, and sexuality. Her work also explores African feminist activism and cyberactivism in digital and social media spaces. She has published four books (Hip-Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers, African Women in Digital Spaces: Redefining Social Movements on the Continent and in the Diaspora,  Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati, and Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism. Her more recent articles and book chapters include “Hip-Hop and Human Rights in Africa”, “Feminisms in African Hip-Hop”, “The Contemporary African Diaspora”, “The Evolution of a Bicultural Identity, in the Shadows of Nyerere’s Pan Africanism”, and “African Women and Hip-Hop in the Diaspora”.  

She teaches the courses "Black Women & Popular Culture" at Howard University and "Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa", which is a joint course between George Washington University and Howard University. Along with students in the Hip Hop in Africa course, she produces The Hip Hop African Blog hosted at hiphopafrican.com. The site is also home to The Hip Hop African Podcast, which is also on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play, and other podcast platforms. 

Dr. Kibona Clark was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Dar es Salaam (2013/14), and she is currently a member of the Board of Trustees for the Diaspora Community of Tanzanians in America (DICOTA), and a member of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and the African Studies Association of Africa. Additionally, she sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of African Cultural Studies and the Global Hip Hop Studies Journal

Dr. Kibona Clark is also a photographer who has exhibited her work online and in print publications, as well as in art and photo exhibitions in Tanzania and the U.S.  

Rubin Patterson, Ph.D., Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (Sept 25, 2023)

Rubin Patterson, Ph.D., is the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Howard University after serving as the Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology for five years. Throughout his career, Dr. Patterson has established himself as a distinguished scholar, researcher, and educator as well as advocate for environmental justice in underserved communities. Before earning a Ph.D. in Sociology at Howard University, Patterson received a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Physics and Electrical Engineering from Florida State University and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from George Washington University. His expertise is wide-ranging, including environmental inequity, sustainable development, diversification of environmental leadership, clean technology, social change, and environmentally sustainable socioeconomic development in Southern Africa. Patterson has authored, edited and co-edited multiple books, along with being the recipient of externally funded projects supported by the National Science Foundation and the National Park Service. His extensive international experience aligns with several programs within COAS, having served as a research associate at the University of the Witwatersrand, in South Africa and visiting professor at the University of Ghana. Patterson previously served at the University of Toledo in various capacities, including chair of Sociology and Anthropology, Director of Africana Studies, Director of the Institute for the Study and Economic Engagement of Southern Africa and Professor of Sociology. He has also served as a visiting fellow at Morehouse College and the University of Maryland.

We need more stories: Exploring community life via the Hilltop (September 18, 2023)

Loren Saxton Coleman

Assistant Professor
Department of Communication, Culture, and Media Studies

School of Communications

Dr. Loren Saxton Coleman is a Black cultural and critical scholar of media studies.  Dr. Coleman's research critically examines how Black people engage various forms of media practices, including community media, social media, television and the Black press. In some of her recent work, Dr. Coleman explores Black resistance and resilience in the D.C. Native movement and its politics of representation. She employs cultural theories to examine the intersections of structures of race, spatiality, and media practices to investigate how Black people practice both racial and spatial justice.

Her work appears in journals, such as Social Media + Society, The Black Scholar, Howard Journal of Communication, and Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. She is the co-editor of the edited volume, Media, Myth, and Millennials: Critical Perspectives on Race and Culture. Dr. Coleman earned her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Georgia. She earned her M.A. from the University of Georgia, and her B.A. from North Carolina State University.

She is a proud native Washingtonian, and currently lives in Northwest, Washington, D.C. 

Dr. Greg Carr (Sept 11, 2023)
Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Chair, Department of Afro-American Studies

Greg Carr is an Associate Professor of Afro-American Studies at Howard University and has served as Department Chair for 12 years. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Howard School of Law. He is First Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and Editor of The Compass: The Journal of ASCAC.  A former board member of the National Council for Black Studies, Dr. Carr has twice been named national “HBCU Male Faculty Member of the Year” by HBCU Digest and has been voted "Professor of the Year" several times by Howard students.. He led the team that designed the curriculum framework for the School District of Philadelphia’s mandatory high school African American History course and, during his time as the District's Program Specialist on Race and Culture,  co-founded Philadelphia Freedom Schools. His writing has appeared in books, academic and popular journals and he serves as a contributor to and/or commentator in a wide range of media. He is a weekly panelist on the daily digital news show “Roland Martin Unfiltered” and co-hosts Karen Hunter’s weekly Saturday YouTube series, “In Class With Carr.” His commentaries on the 50th anniversary of the Black Panther Party and the opening of the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture appeared in the August and September 2016 issues of Ebony Magazine. Dr. Carr’s chapter, “Re-Literacy and African Power in the Trump Era,” appears in Not Our President, Third World Press’ book-length commentary on the Trump presidency. 

John Kennedy (Sept 11, 2023)
Howard University 1867 to 2023 

Archivist, Moorland Spingarn Research Center

Bahiyyah Muhammad  (August 28, 2023)
The Importance of Citizenship 

Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology

Ph.D., Rutgers University School of Criminal Justice

MA, Corrections Administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice

BS, Administration of Justice, and a Criminology Certificate from Rutgers University