Title and department: Assistant Professor of African Cultural Studies, Department of African Cultural Studies
Hometown: West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Bafang, Cameroon
Educational/professional background: BA in History from Wayne State University; Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from Purdue University; MA and PhD in History from Purdue University
How did you get into your field of research?
As a doctoral student, I took a graduate course on African feminisms. I fell instantly in love with the topic matter. As a Cameroon-born woman, I started to understand how feminism is of great importance to African women. My mind was buzzing with excitement after every class. Two texts from the class inspired me: Male Daughters, Female Husbands by Ifi Amadiume and The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí. The two texts led me to wonder about the history of gender and feminism in Cameroon, a west-central African country, and Africa in general.
Read the full story originally written by Katie Vaughn.