Black History Month 2005 (Rutgers Experts and Story Ideas)

The following faculty from the New Brunswick/Piscataway, Newark and Camden campuses of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, represent an array of scholarship and expertise, and can comment on topics relative to Black History Month (February).

AFRICAN-AMERICANS IN FILM AND THEATER: Albert G. Nigrin is executive director and curator of the Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center Inc. and a cinema studies lecturer at Rutgers-New Brunswick. An award-winning experimental media artist, Nigrin has taught courses on the black experience in film. He can discuss whether minority stereotypes persist in modern films.

Contact Nigrin at (732) 932-8482 (office) or NJMAC@aol.com.

Sandy Flitterman-Lewis is an associate professor of English at Rutgers-New Brunswick, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in film theory, film genres, theories of women and film, and film and society. She can discuss the portrayal of African-Americans in film.

Contact Flitterman-Lewis at (201) 795-0424 (home) or sweetsod@aol.com.

Allen Woll is a professor of history and directs the film studies program at Rutgers-Camden. The author of such books as "Black Musical Theatre: From Coontown to Dreamgirls" and "Dictionary of Black Theatre: Broadway, Off-Broadway and Selected Harlem Theatre," he can discuss African-American films and theater, the influence of black composers on white musicals and racism on Broadway.

Contact Woll at awoll@camden.rutgers.edu.

NEW JERSEY'S AFRICAN-AMERICANS: Clement Price, Rutgers Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor of History, is director of the Institute on Ethnicity, Culture and Modern Experience at Rutgers-Newark. Price, who has written extensively on Afro-American history, race relations and modern culture in the United States and in New Jersey, is the author of "Freedom Not Far Distant: A Documentary History of Afro-Americans in New Jersey." He is the consulting historian for the late Tom Guy Jr.'s documentary on the Bordentown School for Colored Youth. He also is completing a study of Afro-American cultural and social history in 20th century Newark, as well as a biography of Marion Thompson Wright, a pioneering historian of New Jersey race relations.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Marion Thompson Wright Lecture Series. The two-day series (Feb. 18-19) will feature keynote speaker James Oliver Horton, a Newark native and president of the Organization of American Historians (Feb. 19, 9:30 a.m.). The event will be held at the Paul Robeson Campus Center at Rutgers-Newark.

Contact Price at (973) 353-5410, ext. 5414, (973) 353-5528 ext. 5414(both office), (973) 624-8422 (home) or (973) 477-9987 (cell).

WOMEN OF AFRO-ISLAMIC SOCIETIES: Ousseina Alidou is the director of African Languages and Literature in the department of Africana studies at Rutgers-New Brunswick. Alidou has authored "Engaging Modernity: Muslim Women and the Politics of Agency" (2005) and co-authored "A Thousand Flowers: The Struggle for Education in African Universities" (2000). She can comment on the political sociology of education and literacy in Afro-Islamic societies and its impact on women.

Contact Alidou at (732) 445-4023, ext. 228, or oalidou@rci.rutgers.edu.

RACE AND THE LAW: Tanya Hernandez is a professor of law and the Justice Frederick W. Hall Scholar at Rutgers School of Law-Newark. The author of numerous publications and conference presentations on race issues, Hernandez is a senior editor for the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Latino/a History and Culture and an editorial board member for the Latino Studies Journal. In fall 2003, she served as a Scholar-in-Residence/Independent Scholar at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She can discuss legal matters regarding race, the common civil rights struggles of persons of African descent throughout the Americas, Afro-American and Latino relations, Afro-Latino history and identity, and the sexual harassment issues of black women and other women of color.

Contact Hernandez at (973) 353-3147 (office) or thernandez@kinoy.rutgers.edu.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN ORAL TRADITIONS AND SOCIAL CHANGE: Regina Jennings has a doctorate in African studies and is an assistant professor in the Africana studies department at Rutgers-New Brunswick. Jennings teaches "African-American Folklore," "Black Social and Political Development" and "Black Profiles." As an accomplished poet, she has published "Midnight Morning Musings" and "Race, Rage and Roses." Jennings can discuss various vehicles for oral expression and its effectiveness in initiating political change.

Contact Jennings at (732) 445-3334 (office) or rjenning@rci.rutgers.edu.

DIVERSITY ON THE JOB AND IN THE ECONOMY: Nancy DiTomaso, professor of organization management with the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, teaches courses on managing strategic transformation and cross-cultural management. Her research examines the structure of the labor force, workers' job experiences and the routes and strategies people use to achieve their educational and career goals. She can discuss public policy as it relates to diversity (especially race/ethnicity and gender issues) and organizational change.

Contact DiTomaso at (973) 353-5984 (office), (908) 889-7457 (home) or ditomaso@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

William M. Rodgers III is a professor of economics at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers-New Brunswick and chief economist of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development. He was chief economist for the U.S. Department of Labor during the Clinton administration. His widely cited research examines issues in labor economics and the economics of social problems. In recent years, he has focused his research on the impact of the 1990s economic expansion on the earnings and employment of Americans, especially Americans of color.

Contact Rodgers at (732) 932-4100, ext. 783 (office), (609) 240-5556 (cell) or wrodgers@rci.rutgers.edu.

THE STATE OF BLACK NEW JERSEY: Roland Anglin is executive director of the New Jersey Public Policy Research Institute (NJPPRI), an affiliate of Rutgers' Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy in New Brunswick. NJPPRI is a 28-year-old organization devoted to the analysis of public policies that impact the advancement of New Jersey's African-American community. It has issued reports on such policies as tax and education reform, the juvenile justice system and health care reform. Its annual report, The State of Black New Jersey, has been an effective force in shaping policy at all stages of the process.

Contact Anglin at (732) 932-5475, ext. 599 (office), or njppri@rci.rutgers.edu.

AFRICAN-AMERICAN RELIGION: Leonard L. Bethel is an associate professor of Africana studies at Rutgers-New Brunswick. He teaches courses in African and African-American religion and philosophy, as well as courses in the history of education. He is working on a manuscript on the life and times of Layle Lane, a civil rights activist involved in the first march on Washington. Bethel also is working on a project on Westry Horne, an African- American educational pioneer in New Jersey. Bethel can comment on the psychological and historical context of religious practices of African-Americans - a review from slavery to present day. He is also available to discuss his work on Lane and Horne.

Contact Bethel at (732) 445-3334 (office) or bethel@rci.rutgers.edu.

THE BLACK IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE: Belinda Edmondson, an associate professor of English, is chair of the department of African-American/African studies at Rutgers-Newark. She teaches courses on Caribbean, African and African-American literature, as well as on feminist theory, critical race theory and post-colonial theory. She also has taught courses on film and popular culture. Edmondson is the author of "Making Men" and the editor of "Caribbean Romances: The Politics of Regional Representation." Her current book project is on Caribbean popular culture. Edmondson can discuss the black immigrant experience in the United States and issues affecting black people of the African diaspora.

Contact Edmondson at (973) 353-1586 ext. 20 (office) or edmondsn@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

RACISM AND SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH: William Tucker, is a professor of psychology at Rutgers-Camden and the author of such books as "The Science and Politics of Racial Research" and "The Funding of Scientific Racism: Wickliffe Draper and the Pioneer Fund." He can discuss political misuse in social science, especially concerning race. Contact Tucker at (856) 225-6545 (office) or btucker@camden.rutgers.edu.

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, BLACK NATIONALISM: Wayne Glasker is an associate professor of history and directs the African-American studies program at Rutgers-Camden. The author of "Black Students in the Ivory Tower: African American Student Activism at the University of Pennsylvania, 1967-1990," he can discuss African-American history, black nationalism and the civil rights movement.

Contact Glasker may be reached at (856) 225-6220 (office) or wglasker@aol.com.

Mia Bay is an associate professor of history at Rutgers-New Brunswick and teaches courses in African-American history, black nationalism and American racial thought. Her research interests include African-American cultural history and the African diaspora. She is the author of "White Images in the Black Mind," (2000, Oxford University Press). She can discuss the African-American experience in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Contact Bay at (732) 932-7092 (office) or mbay@rci.rutgers.edu.

CHILDHOOD OF FAMOUS AFRICAN-AMERICANS: Ted Goertzel is a professor of sociology at Rutgers-Camden. He recently updated his parents' highly acclaimed book, "Cradles of Eminence," which pioneered research on the childhood of notable world personalities. He can discuss the childhood of notable African-Americans, including Maya Angelou, W.E. B. DuBois, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods.

Contact Goertzel at (856) 225-2714 (office) or goertzel@camden.rutgers.edu.