Douthit will be Professor of the Practice in Residence in African American Studies for fall 2022, and Brenda Marie Osbey will be Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Residence in African American Studies for spring 2023.
Douthit will teach an undergraduate seminar entitled “Where It All Began: A History of Hip Hop.”
Osbey will teach the undergraduate seminar, “Modernist Africana Poetry of the Americas,” which examines the origins of modernism among Africana authors of the Americas and poetry, poetics and poetry movements of Brazil and Latin America, the Caribbean and the United States from the late 19th through the first half of the 20th century.
Douthit and Osbey will participate in special programming for both the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem communities during their teaching semesters.
“We are so fortunate to be able to welcome these two extraordinary visiting scholars to Wake Forest. Each will help our students and entire community conceptualize the multiple relationships of the arts to teaching and research in African American Studies in powerful new ways,” said Dean of the College Michele Gillespie.
“Both Osbey and Douthit exemplify the too-little acknowledged centrality of artists in shaping history, society and culture.”
Michele Gillespie
Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities and founding director of the Program in African American Studies Corey D. B. Walker said, “As an academic discipline, African American Studies is distinguished by the creative collaborations between artists, writers and scholars. We are excited to have these two tremendous talents join our intellectual community.”
Douth said he is excited about how everything has come full circle with this opportunity to return to Wake Forest. “I’ve been connected to the University since 1989 by way of Ernest Wade, former director of Minority Affairs. I was selected as a 14-year-old for “Project Ensure,” a college prep program for academically gifted minorities from Winston-Salem going to the 9th grade. I spent every summer there until I graduated from high school in 1993. Wake Forest was my very first taste of what college life could and would be.”
For Osbey, the return to Winston-Salem is another opportunity to work with Walker whom she has known since their time on the faculty at Brown University. “In 2017, at the invitation of Professor Walker, I attended presentation sessions by Winston Salem State University and Wake Forest students as part of a universities and communities course that he and Provost Rogan Kersh were then teaching. Their ‘communiversity’ approach had a special appeal. It echoed an earlier sense of higher learning having a mission extending beyond the advancement of the individual, a commitment to service to the immediate and larger communities. Taking notes during those student presentations, I couldn’t wait to join in the after-discussion. And I have again that sense of anticipation and excitement. I’m very much looking forward to working with students in the Program in African American Studies.”
Walker is excited to welcome Douthit and Osbey back to Winston-Salem. “To be able to welcome 9th Wonder back home to an institution that was so formative for him and to welcome my dear friend Brenda Marie is a gift.”
