Participant Biographies

Peniel E. Joseph

Peniel E. Joseph is Professor of History at Tufts University and the author of Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour and editor of The Black Power Movement and Neighborhood Rebels. The recipient of fellowships from Harvard University’s Charles Warren Center, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Ford Foundation, his essays have appeared in The Journal of American History, The Chronicle Review, The New York Times, and American Historical Review. He lives in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Dr. Chana Kai Lee, Ph.D.

Chana Kai Lee is Associate Professor of History at the University of Georgia. Lee is author of For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Illinois, 1999), which won the Willie Lee Rose Prize awarded by the Southern Association of Women Historians and the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book Prize awarded by the Association of Black Women Historians. She is also U.S. field editor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History (2007), a four-volume publication that captures the historical experiences of women throughout the world.

Hadjii

Born and raised in Brunswick, Georgia, Hadjii is an accomplished writer, director, actor, producer, and humorist. Hadjii graduated from the University of Georgia’s College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a BA degree in Telecommunications Arts, and later spent three years at his alma mater as an Adjunct Instructor. In 2004, he wrote, directed, and starred in his first feature film Somebodies, which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The film also went on to receive Best Screenplay from the 2006 Sarasota Film Festival, a Golden Thumb from renowned film critic Roger Ebert, and earned Hadjii a Best New Director Award from the 2007 Pan-African Film Festival. In 2008, Hadjii wrote, directed, starred, and executive produced “Somebodies: The Television Series” for the BET Network. The show aired as the first scripted sitcom in the history of the network and received audience and critical acclaim, including honors from the LA Times (Critic’s Choice) and the Associated Press (One of Five New Shows to Watch). Hadjii's first book, Don’t Let My Mama Read This: A Southern-Fried Memoir, debuted in April 2008 to national acclaim from Publishers Weekly, Roger Ebert, and The Atlanta Journal Constitution. A member of the Writers’ and Directors’ Guilds of America, Hadjii currently has several projects in development in film and television.

William Jelani Cobb, Ph.D.

William Jelani Cobb, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History at Spelman College. He specializes in post-Civil War African American history, 20th century American politics and the history of the Cold War. He served as a delegate and historian for the 5th Congressional District at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. He is a recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright and Ford Foundations. Dr. Cobb is also the author of To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (NYU Press 2007), which was a finalist for the National Award for Arts Writing. His collection The Devil & Dave Chappelle and Other Essays (Thunder’s Mouth Press) was also published in 2007. He is editor of The Essential Harold Cruse: A Reader, which was listed as a 2002 Notable Book of The Year by Black Issues Book Review.

Jeffrey Lamar Coleman

Jeffrey Lamar Coleman is Associate Professor in the Department of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Coleman’s first book of poems, Spirits Distilled was published by Red Hen Press, and his poems and essays have appeared in Blue Mesa Review, Black Bear Review, Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz and Literature, Weavings 2000 and Critical Essays on Alice Walker. With support from the Maryland Humanities Council, he is a frequent guest lecturer throughout the state and country on the history and poetry of the American Civil Rights Movement.

Reginald McKnight

Reginald McKnight is the Hamilton Holmes Professor in the Department of English at the University of Georgia. McKnight’s two novels and three collections of short stories draw attention to the definitions and experiences of race and class in the post-Civil Rights movement era. For his work, he has been honored with an O. Henry Award, a Whiting Award, the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, a Society of Midland Authors Book Award, and his most recent novel, He Sleeps, was a finalist for the Hurston/ Wright LEGACY Award. Of this novel, The Los Angeles Times said, "McKnight forces us to think about race, sex, denial, but even more significantly, he forces us to feel."

Sharan Strange

Sharan Strange has returned after a long hiatus to what she calls the “Funky South” to teach creative writing at Spelman College. Her collection of poems, Ash, was published in 2001 by Beacon Press. Recent poems have appeared in Callaloo and the catalogue for the New Museum of Contemporary Art's exhibition of Black President: The Art and Legacy of Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Sponsored by the Institute for African American Studies at UGA