Cécile Accilien, Associate Professor of African & African-American Studies and Director of the Institute of Haitian Studies, is the language coordinator for Haitian Creole and spent a year as a Fulbright Lecturer and Researcher at the Université de Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Her research, investigating French-speaking Caribbean and African communities, takes an interdisciplinary approach to women and gender studies, as well as cultural studies.

Glenn Adams, Associate Professor of Psychology and former Associate Director of the Kansas African Studies Center, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone and conducted two years of field research in Ghana. His current work investigates the coloniality of knowledge in psychological science. It articulates models of human development and ways of living that promote sustainable well-being for broader humanity.

Hannah Britton, Associate Professor of Political Science and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, directs the Center for the Study of Injustice and coordinates the Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative. Her scholarship focuses on gender and African politics, the prevention of gender-based violence, and human trafficking. She also coordinates a working group of faculty and graduate students using qualitative research methods in their teaching and scholarship.

Abel Chikanda, Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies and Geography, is originally from Zimbabwe and conducts research on migration and development, refugee movement, food security, and the informal sector in Africa. Before coming to KU, he held a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) postdoctoral fellowship at Queen’s University and was a project coordinator at the Balsillie School of International Affairs.

John Gluckman is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics. His central research interests are African languages, particularly those in East Africa.  His fieldwork in Kenya has focused primarily on the Bantu language Llogooli.  His work explores syntax, semantics, and morphology, and their interfaces.

Elizabeth MacGonagle, Associate Professor of History and African & African-American Studies, is the Director of the Kansas African Studies Center and co-Director of the LAB.  She has extensive experience facilitating collaboration across units on campus as the Director of the Kansas African Studies Center (KASC). Her research examines issues of culture, identity, and memory in African settings, and her scholarly expertise and fieldwork experiences in East and Southern Africa will enhance the research process of the LAB.

Hannington Ochwada is a lecturer of African History in the departments of History and of African and African-American Studies. Originally from Kenya and a native Kiswahili speaker, he has taught in the U.S for many years. His research focuses on gender and sexuality in East Africa and introduces students and community members to concepts of global Islam and religious syncretism.

Peter Ojiambo, Associate Professor of African & African-American Studies, is the Associate Director of Kansas African Studies Center and co-Director of the LAB.  He is originally from Kenya and directs the Kiswahili language program at KU. He has served as the coordinator for the African languages program for seven years. His research focuses on issues of education and development in Kenya, as well as the creation of appropriate cultural and linguistic pedagogies in the classroom.

Kathryn Rhine, Associate Professor of Anthropology, is co-Director of the LAB and a medical anthropologist with over 14 years of fieldwork experience in Nigeria. Her research focuses on global health, biomedicine, gender and HIV/AIDS, particularly within the context of Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa. She was recently awarded an NEH Humanities Connections grant for a curriculum development project entitled “Global Medical Humanities: Bridging Digital Divides in Healthcare.”