Mbye B. Cham,
Associate Professor |
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| Contact Information |
Office:
Howard University
Rm #
Washington, DC 20059 |
Office Phone: 202.806. |
Email: |
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| Education |
- Ph.D. in African Languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- MA in African languages and Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- MA in French Language, State University of New York, Buffalo
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| Teaching and Research Areas |
- Literary and Film Theory
- Language and Style in Fiction
- Literature (oral and written), Film and Society
- Art, Culture and Development
- Religion and the Creative Imagination
- Film and History in Africa and
- Cinema in Southern Africa
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| Faculty and Academic Administrative Positions |
- Member, Honors Council, College of Arts and Sciences (2003-)
- Co-Chair, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Administrative Review Panel for the M.A. Program of the Department of Art History (2000-)
- Project Director, Center for the Study of Culture and Development in Africa, Department of African Studies, Howard University (1993-)
- Member of the admissions, Curriculum and Financial Aid Committee, Department of African Studies, Howard University (1985-)
- Member of the Research Committee, Department of African Studies, Howard University (1980-)
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| Selected Publications: |
- Books
- African Experiences of Cinema, co-edited with Imruh Bakari (London: British Film Institute, 1996)
- EX-ILES: Essays on Caribbean Cinema, contributing editor (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press)
- BLACKFLAMES: Critical Perspectives on Black Independent Cinema, co-edited with C.A. Watkins (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1988)
- Monographs, Articles & Chapters in Books
- “Oral Traditions, Film and Literature in Africa: The Dynamics of Exchange.” Chapter in a forthcoming book on Filmnovel, edited by Robert Stam (2002)
- “The Dynamics of African Film-making.” In UNESCO World Culture Report 2000: Cultural Diversity, Conflict and Pluralism (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2000), pp.86-87
- “Official History, Popular Memory: Reconfiguration of the African Past in the Films of Ousmane Sembene.” In Marcia Landy (ed.), The Historical Film: History and Memory in Media (New Brunswick, NL: Rutgers University Press, 2000), pp. 261-68
- “Can African Cinema Achieve the Same Level of Indigenization as Other Popular African Arts Forms?”, Chapter 8 in June Givanni and Imruh Bakari (eds.), Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema: Audiences, Theory and the Moving Image (London: British Film Institute, 2000), pp. 183-84
- “African Experiences of Cinema” for the UNESCO World Culture Report (July 1, 1999), 15 pages
- “African Oral Traditions and African Education. A Conceptual Framework for the Oral Tradition Initiative,” Africa Region (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank June 1, 1999), 44 pages
- “The South Narrates Itself,” in Valeria Alliata di Villafranca (ed.), United Colors of Media: Immagini: Risorce della Solidarieta Internazionale (Milano: Fondazione Caiplo, 1999), pp85-89
- “Continuità e Rottura” (“African Cinema between the ‘Old’ and the ‘New” – translated into Italian), in Alessandra Speciale (ed.), La Nascita Del Cinema In Africa; Il Cinema dell’Africa sub-sahariana della origini al 1975 (Torino, Italy: Edizioni Lindau, 1998), pp. 219-224
- “Echoes of Africa in African American Films,” in Ecrans d’Afrique, no. 23, Premier semester (1998), pp. 108-112
- “Djibril Diop and Music: Sounds in the Keys of Ordinary Folk,” Ecrans d’Afrique, 2ème semester, no. 24 (1998), pp. 44-53
- “ Some Reflections on African Cinema in the ‘90s,” Ecrans d’Afrique, 2ème semester, no. 24 (1998), pp. 124-135
- “African Cinema in the Nineties,” African Studies Quarterly, Vol. 2, Issue 1 (1998)
- “African Cinema in the US” in Ecrans d’Afrique, 1st Quarter, no. 19 (1997), pp. 51-63
- “African Cinema in Japan: A Conversation with Kenji Shiraishi,” in Ecrans d’Afrique, 3rd-4th Quarter, no. 2 (1997), pp. 50-54
- “African Cinema in the 90s,” Festival Catalogue, Tokyo African Film Festival, translated into Japanese (1997)
- “Shape and Shaping of Caribbean Cinema.” In Michael Martin (ed.), Cinemas of the Black Diaspora: Diversity, Dependence and Oppositionality (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996)
- “Filming the African Experience.” In FEPACI (ed.), L’Afrique et le Centennaire du Cinema (Paris: Presence Africaine, 1995)
- “African Women and Cinema: A Conversation with Anne Mungai,” in Research in African Literatures, 25 (3), (1994), pp. 93-104
- “The Past Present Future: A Reflection on Haile Gerima’s Sankofa,” in Ecrans d’Afrique, No. 4, Second Quarter (1993), pp. 20-27
- “Official History, Popular Memory: Reconfiguration of the African Past in the Films of Ousmane Sembene.” in Samba Gadjigo, Ralph Falkingham, Thomas Cassier and Reinhard Sander (eds.), Ousmane Sembène: Dialogues with Critics and Writers (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993), pp. 22-2
- “Filming the African Experience,” in Kenji Shiraishi (ed.), Contemporary African Cinema, (Tokyo, Japan: TAMA LIFE 21 African Film Festival of Tokyo). Translated into Japanese (1993)
- “Classic African Cinema,” in the New York African Film Festival Catalog, Modern Days Ancient Nights: 30 Years of African Cinema (1993), pp. 1-2
- “Sarabaa: Looking for Paradise on Earth,” “La Vie Est Belle: Getting Over, Zairian Style” and “Wênd Kûuni: A Fable for Modern Africa,” in Cornelius Moore (ed.), Library of African Cinema (San Francisco, CA: California Newsreel, 1991)
- “Islam in Senegalese Literature and Film,” in Kenneth Harrow (ed.), Islam in African Literature (London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1991)
- “Structural and Thematic Parallels” in Isidore Okpewho (ed.), Oral Performance in Africa (Ibadan, Nigeria: Spectrum Books, 1990), pp. 251-269
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| Selected Unpublished Works: |
- “Film and History: A Critical Survey of Current Trends and Tendencies.” Paper presented at the First International Conference on Film and History, University of Cape Town, South Africa, July 6-8, 2002
- “Impotence and Politics of Transformation in Ousmane Sembene’s XALA,” paper presented at the African Film Conference, Seattle Art Museum, University of Washington, Seattle, April 21, 2001
- “XALA and the Politics of Post-Coloniality in African Cinema,” paper presented at the Conference on Ousmane Sembene. University of West Indies at cave Hill, Barbados, April 7-9, 2000
- “African Cinema and Civil Society: Looking Ahead to the Next Decade,” paper presented at the conference Africa and African Peoples in the Twenty First Century: The Second Struggle for Independence, Notre Dame University, May 8-10, 1998
- “African Cinema in the Nineties,” paper read in absentia at the Carter Lectures, African Cinema Conference, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, March 20-22, 1998
- “Revisioning the African Past: The Case of Sarraounia,” paper presented at the conference Recovering Benin, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, April 11-12, 1997
- “Constructions of Caribbean Identities in Film,” paper presented at the conference Caribbean Crossroads, New York University, New York, NY, May 2-3, 1997
- “Deconstruction of Self and the Other in Ousmane Sembène’s Camp de Thiaroye,” paper presented at the International Conference on The Question of the Other, hosted by the Department of Comparative Literature, S.U.N.Y. –Binghamton, N.Y., October 31-November 2, 1991
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| Awards and Recognitions |
- Recently, Dr. Cham has served on the following Boards:
- Board, West African Research Association (1995-2001)
- Editorial Board, Black Renaissance Noire (1997-)
- Board of Directors, African Script Development Fund, Harare - Zimbabwe (1997-)
- Advisory Committee, UBUNTU 2000, Cape Town, South Africa (1997)
- Advisory Committee, The Africa Media Project, Hopes on the Horizon: The Rise of the New Africa (1945-1995). Blackside, Inc., Boston, MA (1996)
- Editorial/Advisory Board, Journal of Negro Education (1991-1995)
- Editorial Board, Ecrans d’Afrique (1991-)
- Board of Directors, Spirit of Truth Foundation (UPRISING), Clinton, Maryland (1991-1993)
- Executive Committee, African Literature Association (1984-1985 and 1991-1994)
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| Dr. Cham has received numerous awards from Howard University including the Howard University Fund for Academic Excellence Travel Award. He has also served as a jury member for prestigious review panels and awards both within and outside Howard University. These include the Paul Robeson Film Awards, Prized Pieces Film and Video Competition, and the Annual ROSEBUD Awards and Competition. Dr. Cham has also presided on the jury on Short Film Competition of the 16th FESPACO (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 1999) and the Feature Films and Video Futures Jury (Southern African Film Festival (Harare, Zimbabwe, 1998) and served as consultant to UNESCO and the World Bank. |
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