Faculty of the African Diaspora Association (FADA)
Mission
Historically, Black1 faculty have been denied equitable access to academia. Despite more recent integration attempts, Black faculty remain marginalized, exploited, policed, and disempowered by various academic institutions, cultures, and processes, including those endemic to Georgia State University (GSU). As Critical Race scholarship suggests, the failures of integration to instill equity illustrate the structural character of racism that induces anti-Blackness in conventional mindsets, cultures, and institutions.
Accordingly, the Faculty of the African Diaspora Association (FADA) exists to support and enrich the experiences of Black students, staff2, and faculty at Georgia State University, through advocacy, networking, mentorship, and engagement with surrounding communities. We are committed to speaking-up and speaking-out on the oppressive experiences endured by Black faculty and using the collective power of Black community to elevate Black thought and Black lives, especially at junctures where Black identity intersects with other dimensions of difference, such as gender, sexual orientation, social class, citizenship status, dis/ability, religious orientation, and age.
[1] Black describes communities of the global African diaspora.
[2] Staff refers to professional or scholarly positions that don’t currently require instruction but could in the future.
Leadership/Officers
Jessie L Adolph
Samantha Andrews
Leadership Bios
Dr. JL Adolph is an Assistant Professor of English at Georgia State University-Perimeter College (Decatur). JL, a St. Louis Native and University of Missouri-Columbia alum, specializes in Hip-hop Fatherhood Narratives and College-to-Career strategies. He is a proud father of four and the lead blogger of the YouTube show DADCYPHER: A Hip-hop Guide to Fatherhood.
Jonathan Gayles, Ph.D. is the Vice President of FADA and Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. He is a graduate of Morehouse College (B.A., Psychology), Winthrop University (M.S., School Psychology) and the University of South Florida (Ph.D., applied anthropology). His primary areas of interest include the anthropology of education, Black masculinity, and critical media studies. In 2012, he produced the award-winning documentary on African-American comic book superheroes entitled “White Scripts and Black Supermen: Black Masculinities in Comic Books ”(California Newsreel). In 2013, the American Culture Association/Popular Culture Association awarded the documentary the Peter Rollins Best Documentary Film Award. He also produced “The E-Word: A Documentary on the Ebonics Debate.” The film examines the context of the national furor in response to the Oakland Unified School District’s Resolution on Ebonics. The film pursues a more informed understanding of “The E-Word” through the use of archival footage and interviews with former students, teachers, administrators, policy-makers and scholars that were directly involved with the Resolution and the national debate that ensued.
During his tenure at Georgia State University, he served as the inaugural Associate Dean for Undergraduate Learning in the College of Arts and Sciences as well as the Associate Provost for Institutional Effectiveness. As Associate Provost, he led Georgia State University’s (GSU) consolidation with the former Georgia Perimeter College (GPC). This is the largest consolidation in the history of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. He currently serves as Chair of the University Task Force for Racial Equality.
My research interest focuses on resilience in the context of transgenerational trauma. The resilience and transgenerational trauma concepts often are discussed at some point in the courses that I teach. Specifically, I teach the Introduction to General Psychology, Honors Introduction to General Psychology, Introduction to Human Development, and Introduction to Abnormal Psychology courses in the Cultural and Behavioral Sciences Department at the Clarkston Campus of Georgia State University.
I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Psychology, graduating Summa Cum Laude with Phi Beta Kappa distinction and Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from Fisk University. Upon earning my Master of Arts degree, I worked for the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, serving Georgia’s youth and their families. I earned a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Civil Law degree from Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University. Prior to starting a career in academia, I practiced law in the areas of commercial real estate, estate planning, guardianship law and probate litigation. I am in the process of completing a doctoral degree in developmental psychology from Georgia State University.
I thoroughly enjoy incorporating practical experiences from previous mental health and legal work as well as current global events into my teaching. Additionally, I enjoy reading historical fiction, traveling and learning about cultures different than my own, and sharing time with my family and friends.
Tanya Washington is a Professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law. She earned her J.D. from The University of Maryland School of Law and then clerked for Associate Judge Robert M. Bell on the Maryland Court of Appeals. After practicing as a toxic tort defense litigator in the Baltimore office of Piper & Marbury, she completed two fellowships and earned her LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
Professor Washington considers herself to be an activist scholar, and a belief that the true value of the law lies in its capacity to improve the human condition animates her work. She served for three years on the Atlanta Human Relations Commission, volunteered with various organizations that provide support to Atlanta’s unsheltered population, cooked and served at area soup kitchens, filed several amicus briefs in Georgia appellate cases and in federal circuit and U.S. Supreme Court cases, and provided countless hours of pro-bono work. Her work as an educator activist also includes serving for 2 years as Director of the John Lewis Fellowship Program, a Humanity in Action program funded by a grant to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights from the Mellon Foundation. Professor Washington's teaching and scholarly contributions have been recognized by the Gate City Bar, with the President’s Award for Excellence, and by Georgia State University, with the Alumni Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching and Scholarship.
Dr. Samantha Andrews is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Perimeter College-Decatur Campus. She has served as a faculty member at Perimeter College since 2019. She earned a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Georgia Tech and Emory University. She has an interest in science education and outreach.
Resources
Center for Studies on Africa and Its Diaspora at Georgia State University
- The Center for Studies on Africa and its Diaspora at Georgia State University supports academic, artistic and public programming that explores the engagement, worldviews, and influences of African peoples on social, cultural, economic, health, and political systems worldwide.
Department of African American Studies at Georgia State University
- The Department of African American Studies at Georgia State University is dedicated to preserving, fostering, and expanding the interdisciplinary study of Black people and those of African descent. The department is built up a foundation of academic excellence, community engagement, and social responsibility.
Georgia State University 2021 Black History Month Events
- Black History Month, or National African American History Month, is an annual celebration of achievements by Black Americans. It is an opportunity to recognize the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. For 2021 Black History Month events hosted by the Georgia State University Multicultural Center (download flyer here). You can also learn more about 2021 Black History Month events taking place across Georgia State's colleges, schools, departments and other units by clicking here.
- Freedom School is a collaboration between Georgia State University’s African American Studies Department and the Auburn Avenue Research Library. Freedom School is a series of virtual lectures that provides premier Africana academic scholarship and research in an accessible public forum (download flyer here).
Museum of the African Diaspora
- The Museum of the African Diaspora celebrates Black cultures and inspires learning through the global lens of the African Diaspora.
National Museum of African American History & Culture
- The National Museum of African American History & Culture is devoted to the documentation of African American life, history, and culture. It is one of the 19 museums of the Smithsonian Institution.
Auburn Avenue Research Library
- Located in downtown Atlanta the Auburn Avenue Research Library is a special library of the Fulton County Library System. The library offers specialized reference and archival collections dedicated to the study and research of African American culture and history and of other peoples of African descent.
Georgia State Hip Hop and the Law Course Examines the Intersection of Music and Resistance
- Professor Mo Ivory in the College of Law and professor Lakeyta Bonnette-Bailey in the College of Arts & Sciences are co-teaching Hip-Hop and the Law to undergraduate and law students. Throughout the semester, students have the chance to delve into the intersection of hip-hop and various legal areas, including intellectual property, capital punishment and immigration. (Article courtesy of the Georgia State University News Hub)
Social Media