Who we are

staff

Jason M. Schultz
Director

Jason M. Schultz has Master's Degrees in Library Science and African Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  He currently holds the position of Librarian for Africana Collections at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously worked at the prestigious Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia. He served as chair of the Book Donations Committee for the Africana Librarians Council. Mr. Schultz has studied ethnomusicology in Zimbabwe, published encyclopedia entries, reviews and compiled bibliographies concerning popular music in Africa, on the Israel/Palestine conflict, and published an original historical essay on southern labor history focusing on the 1977 Atlanta sanitation workers strike.

board members

Matthew Hamilton
Chair

In 2007, Matthew Hamilton received his M.A. in Theological Studies at the University of Notre Dame, focusing on comparative Muslim and Christian political thought, liberation theology, and the role of religion in anti-colonial movements. He completed a B.A. in Religious Studies at Brown University, with a focus in history of religion and contemporary ethics. Mr. Hamilton has been a writer and community activist for the past six years, building grassroots interfaith communities around anti-racism, housing, and anti-war work. His initiative in co-founding the Interfaith House at Brown University was recognized with the James Manning Medal for excellence in the study and practice of religion. He has published essays and articles in such publications as Ziggurat: the Brown Journal of Religion, and is co-editor of the online journal, New Beginnings: A Journal of Independent Labor. Mr. Hamilton is also an accomplished creative writer. Under the direction of celebrated poets Forrest Gander and C.D. Wright, he completed a book of poetry called From the Desert, Under Constantine, which won the Weston Prize in Poetry from the Brown Literary Arts Program. At present, Mr. Hamilton teaches at Seattle Preparatory School, teaching Asian studies and Collegio, an interdisciplinary course which covers world history and literature from the French Revolution to the present.

Carolyn J. Powell
Secretary

Carolyn J. Powell holds a Ph.D. in Afro-American Studies from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She has taught at Smith College and Colgate University and for many years at Murray Bergtram High School in New York City, where she has also been an administrator. Ms. Powell is also an entrepreneur and is a frequently hired consultant on recruiting diverse high school students for undergraduate enrollment at predominantly white universities. Her forthcoming book about sex across the color line in early colonial America, discussing among others the relationship between Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson, will soon be published by the University of Illinois Press.

Lauren Ray
Treasurer

Lauren Ray is a 2004 graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, having received a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish. As part of her research towards this degree, Ms. Ray spent time completing a Spanish language studies program at Tecnológico de Monterrey in Cuernavaca, Mexico. In recent years, she has worked as a bilingual customer service agent in the airline industry for firms in Chicago and Atlanta, and as a volunteer E.S.L. teacher for a community program. She is a writer and community advocate, co-editor of the journal New Beginnings: A Journal of Independent Labor, and former-coordinator of a campaign to fight cutbacks in public transportation in Atlanta. Currently residing in New Orleans, Ms. Ray is working towards her M.A. in Latin American Studies at Tulane University, focusing on the role and influences of left libertarian ideas, organizations and cross U.S.-Mexico solidarity within 20th century Mexican politics.

Godwin Rapando Murunga

Godwin Rapando Murunga is Lecturer at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. Mr. Murunga completed his Ph.D. dissertation focusing on "Sanitation, Urban Planning and Anti-Colonial Revolt in Nairobi, Kenya," in the Department of History at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He has published in such diverse journals as Human Rights Quarterly, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, The Journal of Third World Studies, and Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies. Presently he serves as an executive board member for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESERIA), a consortium of African scholars based in Dakar, Senegal.

Jerome Teelucksingh

Jerome Teelucksingh is a lecturer in the Department of History at The University of the West Indies, Trinidad. He has done work focusing on gender relations, organized public discussions concerning Pan-African and labor leaders in the Caribbean, and works toward improving the nature of party politics and removing religious, ethnic and class barriers. Mr. Teelucksingh has also initiated annual observances of Caribbean Day, World Unemployment Day, International Men’s Day, and Recycling Week. He recently completed a two-volume published work entitled Labour the Liberator: vol 1: Involvement in Party Politics, 1925-1938, vol 2: Socio-Political Evolution of the Caribbean Working Class 1894-1950. During the past decade he has presented at international conferences and also published articles in various magazines and scholarly journals including Peace Review and Slavery and Abolition.