Visiting professors bring expertise on race and music to African American Studies fall schedule

African American courses on arts, media, literature and the history of injustice in the United States are on the schedule this fall as the African American Studies Department welcomes visiting professors Uzoma Miller, Ph.D., and Jonathon Lower, Ph.D.

• See the fall courses offered by African American Studies this fall.

About Uzoma Miller

Miller comes to Athens from Georgia, where he recently taught at Atlanta Metropolitan State College. He earned a Ph.D. in Transformative Inquiry from the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. He also earned an M.A. in Political Science from Jackson State University in Mississippi and a B.A. in History from Morehouse College in Atlanta. Miller sat on the University System of Georgia Regents’ Academic Advisory Committee on History.

His research and teaching interests include ethnomusicology and the integration of popular culture, as well as a transdisciplinary focus on Africana studies, site-specific engaged learning, public history, and Historically Black College or University (HBCU) place consciousness.

“I’m thrilled that Dr. Uzoma Miller accepted the invitation to join the Department of African American Studies this year. Dr. Miller brings a wealth of erudition on Africana music, popular culture, and media arts, and I’m certain that students in Arts and Sciences and beyond will be enthusiastic about Dr. Miller’s courses,” Gary Holcomb, professor and chair of African American Studies, said.

Miller, a former archivist, wrote a monograph titled: "Talented 10th Revisited: Contextualized Knowing and Transdisciplinary Implications Associated with the Processing of the W.E. B. DuBois Collection, 1867 to 1963,” in 2011.

This fall Miller is teaching AAS 1500 Africana Media Studies and AAS 3500 African American Arts and Artists.

About Jonathan Lower

Lower taught most recently at Stark State College in North Canton, Ohio, after earning a Ph.D. in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also earned two degrees, a B.A. and an M.A. in History, from Kent State University.

His current manuscript captures the myriad of relationships between disability and race in music to expose marginalized voices, with an overarching theme of space and how the mobility of early 20th century Black musicians allowed them to cross static and imagined borders.

"I have found that music mattered to listeners, and it mattered more than traditional modes of politics," Lower said. "Blues musicians crossed lines of segregation not just in music, but also in society."

Lower has also written the book, "The Romance of Lead Belly: Race and Activism in American Blues Music" in 2015.

“The Department of African American Studies is equally fortunate to welcome Dr. Jonathan Lower,” Holcomb said. “Considering Dr. Lower’s wide range of expertise, from established areas like blues studies to the emergent field dedicated to exploring the intersections between race and disability, I’m certain that students will be eager to work with him.”

This fall Lower is teaching AAS 1060 Introduction to African American Studies and AAS 2540 History of Injustice in the United States.

Meet the new professors at September events

Both new visiting professors are scheduled for public speaking events in September.

Miller will deliver a lecture at the Ohio University Black Alumni Reunion College of Arts and Sciences open house on Friday, Sept. 16, from 1 to 2 p.m. in Bentley Hall. His talk is followed by a reception on the Bentley portico from 2 to 3 p.m.

Lower will chair a panel for the Central Region Humanities Center's Black Lives in the Ohio Valley Conference, held Sept. 9-10. Lower's panel, "Issues of Identity and Definition: From the 18th to the 21st Century," will be on Sept. 8, from 1 to 3 p.m.