HOUSTON, Feb. 3, 2014 – In recognition of Black History Month, experts at the University of Houston are available to discuss a range of topics, from African-American spiritual leaders to the history of civil rights. If you are unable to reach a professor, please call 713-743-8153.
AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND SPORT
Demetrius Pearson is an associate professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance. His
most recent research focuses on African-American involvement in sport, including North
American rodeo, as well as their depiction in contemporary sport films. He maintains
a repository listing of American sport films from 1930 to 2013. His area of expertise
focuses on competitive sport forms and fitness administration, as well as the sociocultural
and historical aspects of organized sport. Reach him at 713-743-9849 or dpearson@uh.edu
AFRICAN-AMERICAN HEALTH
Janis F. Hutchinson, professor of anthropology, researches minority health issues in African-Americans. As
a medical anthropologist, her research interests include condom use, HIV/AIDS, racism
and health, and health issues among people of color. She is currently examining family
talk about hypertension and diabetes among African-Americans in Houston. Hutchinson
can be reached at jhutchinson@uh.edu
AFRICAN-AMERICAN SPIRITUAL LEADERS
Shayne Lee, associate professor of sociology, is a noted interpreter of contemporary American religion and culture. He is the author
of three books, including, “T.D. Jakes: America’s New Preacher,” which analyzes the
rise of the prominent African-American spiritual leaders as a microcosm of cultural
changes in contemporary American religion. His next project is a sociological analysis
of Tyler Perry's movies. Reach him at 832-640-0170 or slee3@uh.edu
AFRO-CARIBBEAN CULTURE AND HISTORY
Keith McNeal, assistant professor of anthropology, specializes in cultural anthropology
and comparative religions with a focus on Caribbean ethnology and Atlantic history.
His first book is a comparative study of the history and anthropology of African and
Hindu religions in Trinidad and Tobago, where he has been conducting research for
17 years. He recently completed a project reconstructing the history and politics
of Indo-Trinidadian mortuary ritual, materials from which he will produce his first
photographic exhibition. Reach him at 832-291-9593 or keith.e.mcneal@gmail.com
BLACK AMERICA AND THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Gerald Horne holds the John and Rebecca Moores Professor of History and African American Studies.
His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor,
politics, civil rights, international relations and war. Horne is the author of more
than 30 books and 100 scholarly articles and reviews. His current research focuses
on a variety of topics, such as the ties between black America and Cuba. Horne may
be reached at ghorne@uh.edu
BLACK WOMEN IN AMERICA
Linda Reed, associate professor of history, is a noted scholar in African-American history with
a particular interest in women and the South. For the past two years she has been
the director of Graduate Studies in the Department of History at UH, and she also
served for nine years as the director of the UH African American Studies Program and
was the national director of the Association for Black Women Historians. Her works
include an award-winning book concentrating on the forgotten years of the civil rights,
“Simple Decency and Common Sense: The Southern Conference Movement, 1938 – 1963.”
She is currently completing a book on Fannie Lou Hamer, the influential Mississippi
civil rights activist, whose oratory skills are comparable to those of Martin Luther
King, Jr. Reach her at 713-743-3092 or lreed@uh.edu
BLACK LITERATURE
W. Lawrence Hogue, the John and Rebecca Moores Distinguished Professor of English, is the author of
five books including, “Postmodernism, Traditional Cultural Forms and African American
Narratives,” which focuses on how contemporary African-American writers use cultural
forms, such as the blues, jazz, voodoo and other traditional and cultural art forms
to reconfigure African-American subjectivities. He can be reached at 713-743-2950
or at whogue@uh.edu
EDUCATIONAL EQUITY IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
Imani Masters Goffney, assistant professor of mathematics education in the department of curriculum and instruction,
UH College of Education, teaches mathematics methods courses for elementary and middle
school teachers and graduate courses focusing on issues of equity, social justice
and diversity in mathematics education. Her current research investigates the role
that particular teaching practices have on providing access to culturally and linguistically
diverse students as a strategy for addressing the gaps in achievement, especially
in mathematics performance. Reach her at 713-743-2572 or idgoffney@uh.edu
HISTORY OF RACE AND MEDICINE
Richard M. Mizelle, Jr. is an assistant professor of history. His research explores the historical borders
of race, environment, technology and health in modern America. His forthcoming book,
"Backwater Blues: The 1927 Mississippi River Flood and the African American Imagination"
offers a critique of long-standing ideas of black environmental complacency by showing
the ways in which black commentators from W.E.B. Du Bois to Bessie Smith provided
an ecological intellectual criticism of the disaster. His most recent research examines
the long and complex history of race and diabetes from the turn of the 19th century
through Hurricane Katrina. Reach him at 713-743-0130 or rmmizelle@uh.edu
LITERACY EDUCATION
Laveria F. Hutchison is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
in the UH College of Education. She teaches literacy education courses that focus
on developing skills to enhance critical thinking for middle and secondary level learners.
Her work includes the design of instructional practices for English-language learners.
In addition, she conducts research that responds to the critical shortage of science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)-education teachers. Her STEM-education
research and projects have led to invitations to address the U.S. Congressional Black
Caucus, an audience of National Science Foundation researchers and various professional
conferences. Reach her at 713-743-4950 or lhutchison@uh.edu
POLITICS AND PREJUDICE
Nancy Beck Young, professor of history and chair of the department, is a scholar of modern American
politics. Her research questions how political institutions have shaped the lives
of average people through public policy. Much of her work involves the study of Congress,
the presidency and first ladies. She has researched the white, southern politics
of prejudice during World War II. She helps explain why there was no significant civil
rights reform legislation until the 1960s. She is now writing a book on the 1964 presidential
election that foregrounds passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as a key factor
in that contest. Reach her at nyoung@central.uh.edu or by cell phone at 832-454-2443.
RACE IN AMERICA TODAY
Tyrone Tillery, associate professor in the Department of History, is a scholar of U.S. history who
specializes in African-American and civil rights history. Tillery was the executive
director of the NAACP, Detroit branch, and is currently researching the history of
race and intergroup relations in Detroit from 1943 to 1968. Tillery’s book, “Claude
McKay: A Black Poet’s Struggle for Identity,” received book of note recognition from
The New York Times. Tillery can be reached at (713) 743-3097 or ttillery@mail.uh.edu
WEIGHT MATTERS
Norma Olvera, professor of health education in the UH College of Education and director of the
BOUNCE (Behavior Opportunities Uniting Nutrition Counseling and Exercise) program,
is an expert on the obesity epidemic affecting African-American children and their
families. She designs interventions to prevent and treat obesity. Her award-winning
BOUNCE healthy lifestyle programs are nationally recognized as effective obesity treatments.
Reach her at 832-842-5925 or nolvera@uh.edu
WEST AFRICAN CUSTOMS AT PLANTATIONS IN THE UNITED STATES
Kenneth Brown, professor of anthropology, specializes in African-American archeology, history and
oral history. He directs archaeological research in Texas at a cotton and sugar plantation
owned by Levi Jordan, who arrived to the plantation with 12 slaves in 1848. Of particular
interest to Brown were objects that reflected the tenants’ West African heritage,
an “amula” – a kettle placed in another kettle, both are wrapped in a chain and “crossroad
deposits” (crosses etched on brick or stone) under the site of a curer’s cabin and
a former church on the site. He said that in West African culture, a cross represents
African and African-American adaptation of the traditional beliefs, with Christianity
as it was "taught" to them. He has found these types of deposits and symbols on four
different plantations in South Carolina, Georgia and central Louisiana and Texas.
Brown may be reached at (cell) 281-650-3131 or klbrown@uh.edu
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