Gloria H. Dickinson (On Leave)

Gloria Harper Dickinson, is an Associate Professor at The College of New Jersey in Ewing, New Jersey. She holds a B.A. in European History from the City College of New York and an M.A. and Ph.D. in African Studies from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Dickinson's spheres of academic expertise include Africana women and religion, black popular culture, and women writers of Africa and the African Diaspora. She has lectured and written on the novels of African-American Science Fiction novelist Octavia Butler, Nigerian novelist Buchi Emecheta, British anthologist and publisher Margaret Busby and US novelist John A. Williams.

As a member of the American Social History Project's "New Media Classroom National Faculty," and the Georgetown University "Visible Knowledge Project" research consortia, Dickinson's most recent pedagogical work has involved: a research project on the impact that technology and images have on student learning; serving as lead consultant to the New Media Classroom/NEH HBCU "Learning to Look" initiative with Spellman and Dillard Universities; hosting the 2001  "Digitizing Divas" faculty development institute for humanities  professionals; developing New Media materials for Africana Studies;  infusing New Media Technologies into Africana Studies curriculum design;  and training educators on methods and materials for infusing technology &  Africana Studies into public school and/or university General Education curricula. Her "Teaching Africana Studies and Humanities with Technology" consultancies have included (but not been limited to) presentations at The National Humanities Center, University of Maryland College Park, Clark-Atlanta University, Temple University, Howard University, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Millersville University, Bates College, the University of Pennsylvania, Ecole Normale Superieur in Senegal and The University of Strassbourg in France.

Professor Dickinson co-authored the 1990 and 1991 editions of the Tougaloo College, (Mississippi) Mission Involvement Program Textbook, contributed biographies of Police Officer Margaret Creswell Hiawatha, AME Zion pastor Rev. Elizabeth Randolph and novelist Helen Jackson Lee to the 1990 publication Past and Promise:  Lives of New Jersey Women, and authored a chapter on Africana Women's Studies in Creating an Inclusive College Curriculum: A Teaching Sourcebook from the New Jersey Project (Columbia University Teachers College Press, 1996). Professor Dickinson, Dr. Larry Spruill and Mr. Robert Eilets, are presently completing an anthology of African Diaspora portraits and prayers. Dickinson is also working on a monograph about the African American female travel agents who have been in the vanguard of African American cultural tourism in Africa.

Dickinson's  analyses of the popular culture and cuisines of Diaspora people; the literature, history and contemporary activities of women of African descent; and the Africana presence on the Information Superhighway have been both informed and enriched through extensive travel in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, Asia and the Americas. The American Embassy in Muscat, Oman (2003) and the American Consulate in Strasbourg, France (2001) hosted Dickinson as Black History Month speaker. She conducted programs for students, military personnel, academics, foreign service officers and female leaders of NGO's. She also presented at the "Black Women in the Academy" conference co-hosted by Howard University and MIT, and was a keynote speaker at the centennial of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.

In 1995, Dickinson served as organizer of the Alpha Kappa Alpha workshops at the 4th UN Women's Conference in Beijing. Since patenting "Sisters at the Spa," she has also planned African spa trips for organizations and individuals.

Dr. Dickinson is active in several professional and civic organizations. She served 3 years as National President of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (2001-2003). She is also immediate past International Secretary of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (1998-2002) for whom she wrote the field essay for the University Publications of America microfilm collection of the 1921-1998 Alpha Kappa Alpha IVY LEAF magazine. While chair of the AKA Archives and Heritage Committee she curated and wrote the catalogue for the 1998 AKA Chicago Exhibit " MY SOUL LOOKS BACK: AKA AT 90," co-edited the 1996 75th Anniversary reprint of the first IVY LEAF magazine, and spearheaded the collection of oral interviews with women holding membership for over 50 years.

Dr. Dickinson is a life member of the Association of Black Women Historians, and has served as their National Parliamentarian, National Vice Director, Webmaster (http://abwh.tcnj.ed), and discussion list moderator.  She is also a Board member of the National Council for Black Studies and holds membership in  African Studies  Association and the Rancocas Valley Chapter of The Links, Inc. In 2002, she was appointed to the Advisory Board of the American Studies Association Crossroads Project.

Professor Dickinson, and her husband, Arthur, reside in Willingboro, NJ.