Faculty Highlights and Accomplishments

The award-winning poem, "Tongueless in Vancouver," written by Pushpa Parekh, Ph.D., professor of English and director of Spelman's African Diaspora and the World program was selected to be presented at the Canada and Me - Celebrate Canada 150: From Far and Wide-2017 Multicultural Creative Writing Contest and Festival held earlier this fall.

Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper, Ph.D., Fuller E. Callaway Professor of English, will participate in the national forum, “Remembering Langston Hughes: His Art, Life and Legacy Fifty Years Later,” Nov. 10-11 at Princeton University.

Danielle Dickens, Ph.D., along with her colleague at Colorado State University, published a peer-reviewed research article in Sex Roles: A Journal of Research describing how early career U.S. Black women navigate workplace politics by engaging in identity shifting.

Dimeji Togunde, Ph.D., associate provost for global education and professor of international studies, has accepted an invitation to join the Global Studies Research Network Advisory Board

Jennifer Kovacs, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology, has been awarded a four-year grant from the National Science Foundation in the amount of $603,128.

Charissa Threat, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, has received the American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) 2017 Lavinia L. Dock Award for her book "Nursing Civil Rights: Race and Gender in the Army Nurse Corps."

Anne Carlson, Ph.D., senior lecturer of French and instructor of ADW, presented a paper at the 31st conference of the Conseil International d'Etudes Francophones.

Richard D. Benson II, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Education Department, has received a one-year grant from the United Negro College Fund to study the struggle for education equity in Britain’s Black community.

Professor Tarshia Stanley, Ph.D., chair of the English department and director of the Honors Program, received a one-year grant from the United Negro College Fund for her project entitled, “Butler’s Daughters: Imagining Leadership Through Black Speculative Fiction.”

Andrea Lewis Ph.D., C’96, assistant professor and Education Department chair at Spelman, recently released a children’s book that explores racial differences and acceptance of others. “Valerie’s New Friends” (Rathsi Publishing), chronicles Dr. Lewis’ childhood growing up and finding friendship in a predominantly white community in southern New Jersey.