International Visiting Professor
Each year, an International Visiting Professor is appointed by a faculty committee. The International Visiting Professor relocates to the United States to teach two courses per year and be an active member of our community. They are provided office space and library privileges.
Professor Maboula Soumahoro is the 2022-2023 International Visiting Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. Based in France, Soumohoro is an associate professor at the University of Tours. She has previously taught at Bennington College, Barnard College, the Bard Prison Initiative and Columbia University. In 2020, her recent work titled Le Triangle et l’Hexagone, réflexions sur une identité noire (La Découverte, 2021) received a special distinction from the FetKann! Maryse Condé literary prize.
From 2013-2016, Soumahoro was an appointed member of the National Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery in France.
Past International Visiting Professor
Salim Washington is the inaugural International Visiting Professor of African American and African Diasporic Studies at Columbia University. Prof Washington is also a cluster leader/ HOD (head of department) of Performing Arts, and a Professor at University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (Durban, South Africa). Composer & reedsman, he performs on the flute, tenor saxophone, oboe, and bass clarinet. He also studied other instruments including mbira and hand drums.
Prof Washington is a widely published scholar of black culture and music. His interests include the Black Atlantic, Afro futurism, Jazz and other vernacular musics, Diasporic film and literature. Washington is now completing the following titles: Beautiful Nightmare: John Coltrane, Jazz, and American Culture and Notes from Mzansi: The South African Jazz Imaginary.
Q & A With Inaugural Mellon Arts Project International Visiting Professor Salim Washington
Salim and Sankofa performing his composition “Oshun” (link below)
https://youtu.be/SRjvwlkvlzI