SLAE - English & Foreign Languages Staff
Dr. Scott Challener
Assistant Professor, Chair
Location: Armstrong Hall, 217
Phone: 757-727-5400
E-mail: scott.challener@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: 20th- and 21st-century U.S. and Latinx Literatures and Cultures, Latin American poetry and fiction, comparative modernism, poetry and poetics.
Dr. Jocelyn Amevuvor
Assistant Professor of English
Location: Phenix hall, 1219-A
Phone: 757-637-3668
E-mail: jocelyn.amevuvor@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition, Children's Literature, YA Literature
Ms. Nadrian Antoine
Instructor
Location: Phenix hall, 1219-B
Phone: 757-637-3670
E-mail: nadrian.antoine@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition and Rhetoric
Mr. James Balls
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 234
Phone: 757-728-6525
E-mail: james.balls@hamptonu.edu
Mr. James Balls
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 234
Phone: 757-728-6525
E-mail: james.balls@hamptonu.edu
Courses Taught: Introduction to Motion Pictures, Introduction to Filmmaking, Television Writing, Writing and Producing for New Media, Professional Internship, Written Communication II, and Independent Study
Education: MFA in Film Production from the Howard University (1997), BA in Political Science from Southern University (1990)
Research and Scholarship Interests: Black Cinema (including African American, African and African Diasporic film), Expository Documentary Film, and Sports Documentary Film
A veteran producer and editor, Professor Balls has worked as a nonlinear editor for Discovery Communications, Blackside, Inc. and WNET/Thirteen. His scholarly interests include teaching courses in film theory and history, narrative structure and screenwriting, and film production.
Dr. Judith Love Bowman
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 310
Phone: 757-727-5449
E-mail: judith.bowman@hamptonu.edu
Dr. Judith Love Bowman
Asistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 310
Phone: 757-727-5449
E-mail: judith.bowman@hamptonu.edu
“Her voice alone is enough to make one stop, look and listen,” said the late Greer Marie Dawson Wilson. “She is a force of nature…”, says Claudia Whitworth, the publisher of the longest running black newspaper in America, the Roanoke Times. Born on the Virginia Peninsula, (Rev. Dr.) judi Love bowman uses lower case letters for her first and last names in order to show humility and to emphasize “Love”, which is her life’s work, message and reason for preaching, writing, teaching and living. She is a minister, author, artist, professional speaker (with the National Speakers Association, since 1999), social scientist, lifeguard and homemaker. She has claimed residency in Massachusetts, Mississippi, Florida and Texas. Reared in the Presbyterian Church, she was ordained in the AME church in 1992 and currently ministers through her writings, poetry, sermons, Dr. Thinkenshine™ ministry, the More Love Movement (founded in 1999), Lovelight International (a publishing company and online store/lovelightinternational.shop) and YouTube. “dr. judi” or “jLove” as she is affectionately called, studied at Hampton University where she was the uncontested student body president and was elected Miss Freshman and Miss National Honor Society. She pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. at Hampton during the Spring of 1985. She went on to earn three degrees from Harvard: Master of Divinity, Master of Education and Doctorate of Education. At Harvard, she was elected president of Harambee (the Black Students Association) and the class baccalaureate speaker. She has written numerous articles and books. judi Love served as writer-in-residence at Hampton University in the 1990s. At Harvard, she studied with Gerry Lesser, one of the founders of Sesame Street; that knowledge coupled with rearing her son, Legend, and her work as PTA president inspired her to create Dr. Thinkenshine™ in 2012. The Dr. Thinkenshine™ ministry, where she often wears her signature braids, crimson robe, and “Governess Goggles”, currently hosts two YouTube channels which served as quarantine resources. She records at Blivy Hills Studios where she is the set designer, stylist, photographer, director, producer and editor. judi wrote Write Your Book This Year, in hopes of helping others who have books inside of them. Her book, God’s America: Revival and Hope for a United Nation, is one which she hopes will help America heal. dr. judi’s hopes that her latest book, Harambee Celebrations: 21st century African American Celebrations and Rituals, will be a staple in every African American-honoring household. Named as one of Ebony magazine’s “50 Leaders of the Future”, she is humbled and honored to be an inspiration to this generation and the next. Also referred to as “America’s Lifeguard” because of her life coaching ministry, judi Love has literally completed the American Red Cross Lifeguard and CPR certification. As a colleague she is humble, teachable and enjoyable; and she establishes rapport easily with those whom she works alongside. She is a “Harvard Mom” who has one amazing, grown son. She and her beautiful husband, Victor Banks, a mathematician, electrician, boxing coach and bail bondsman, live primarily at Blivy Hills in the Southwest Virginia mountains with their four German Shepherds and fruit trees. She is currently honored to teach English at her beloved, Hampton University. It is her intention to pour into the lives of her students the way Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, William R. Harvey, James Baldwin, Shirley Chisholm, Rosa Parks, Muhammad Ali, Claudia Whitworth, Greer Wilson, Preston N. Williams, her parents and countless others have poured into her life. Nikki Giovanni continues to mentor her and inspire her writings. It is judi Love bowman’s intention to help her students have a solid foundation for communicating in a world where they are empowered. She wants to give her students hope; because they are the hopes and dreams of the slave. She wants to see each of her students win! Her primary research interests include holistic development; African American celebrations; children’s television; writing; justice.
Teaching Philosophy
I have a great passion for being both the teacher and the student. I agree that it is better to be interested than to try to be interesting. I believe that communication is important in community ad I the world today. English Arts, Creative Writing, Public Speaking and Filmmaking can be used by multiple intelligences as a way of making positive things happen I the world. I believe that there should be a moral component to teaching in theory and in praxis. Agreeing that, “to whom much is given, much is required,” I am humbled, grateful and honored to teach, holistically and with love. jLb
BOOKS and SERIES by judi Love bowman
Harambee Celebrations: 21st Century African American Celebrations and Rituals, 2021.
God’s America: Revival and Hope for a United Nation, 2020;
Write Your Book This Year, 2020; (tutorials on YouTube/Dr. judi Online; Write Your Book This Year 2020/Facebook);
Dr. Thinkenshine™ Goes to School (20-book series), 2020; Selected video books: YouTube/Dr. Thinkenshine Goes to School;
The Dr. Thinkenshine™ Series: Send Your Child to Heaven, Happiness, Harvard and Health (20-book series), 2019; Selected video books: YouTube/Dr. Thinkenshine Goes to School;
Peaches: Womanist Thoughts on Finding Peace, Overcoming Peril and Tapping Power, 2018; (Cover review by Nikki Giovanni); Entire video book: YouTube/Dr. judi Online;
P15 Pass Book: America’s Passport for Unity, 2015; (Review by Nikki Giovanni); Entire video book: YouTube/Dr. judi Online;
The Silver Anniversary Collection: Poetry for Peace, Power and Love, 2014; (Review by Claudia Whitworth); Selected readings: YouTube/Dr. judi Online’
Occupy Your Mind with Dr. Thinkenshine™: An Alphabetized Discussion Book for Young People and Those Who Love Them, 2012;
Showers of Bliss: Your Portable Paradise of Inspiration and Hope, 1999;
Dream House: Eight Steps to the Peace and Joy Your Deserve, 1999;
Rebuilding the Wall, 21st Century Inspirational and Womanist Poetry, 1994; (cover review by the late Honorable Shirley Chisholm);
Primary YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOUertEvlA0
Shop: https://lovelightinternational.shop/
Dr. Raphael Comprone
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 314-A
E-mail: raphael.comprone@hamptonu.edu
Dr. Margaret Cox
Associate Professor of English
Location: Armstrong Hall 238-B
Phone: 757-728-4326
E-mail: margaret.cox@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: African American Literature, Africana Studies, Diaspora Studies
Dr. Elizabeth Cuddy
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 322
Phone: 757-728-6733
E-mail: eliazbeth.cuddy@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: British Literature, Compostion
Dr. Elizabeth Cuddy
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 322
Phone: 757-728-6733
E-mail: elizabeth.cuddy@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: British literature, Composition
Courses Taught:
Written Communication I & II, English Literature I & II, Selections in Literature (Detective Fiction), Nineteenth-Century British Literature, Shakespeare, Great Masters of English Literature
Education:
Ph.D., Purdue University (2015); M.A., Literary Studies, Purdue University (2009); B.A., English and History, University of Minnesota Morris (2006)
Research and Scholarly Interests:
Dr. Cuddy’s research focuses on the history, transformation, and adaptation of literary narratives. Her current research projects are centered on Mary Cowden Clarke’s Shakespeare-inspired fiction and nineteenth-century Transatlantic literary studies.
Elizabeth Cuddy’s article “‘Why, by golly, they’re Pirates’: Pirate Narratives, College Sports, and African-American History in Hampton Roads, Virginia” was recently published in the September 2019 issue of The Journal of American Culture.
Dr. Daryl Lynn Dance
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 334
Phone: 757-728-6121
E-mail: daryl.dance@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition and Rhetoric and African American Literature and Rhetoric
Dr. Daryl Lynn Dance
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 334
Phone: 757-728-6121
E-mail: daryl.dance@hamptonu.eduExpertise:Composition and Rhetoric and African American Literature and Rhetoric
EDUCATION
- University of Kansas Ph.D., English 2013
Dissertation: Speaking on Behalf of Others: Understanding “Students’ Right to Their Own Language” through an Alternate Frame
- Virginia Commonwealth University M.A., English 1998
- Hampton University B.A., English 1995
TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS
- Writing Theory and Pedagogy
- African American Rhetoric and Literature
- Service Learning
PUBLICATIONS
“Can Rachel Jeantel Speak?” College Language Association Journal,vol. 58, 2015, pp. 139-146.
Dance, Daryl Lynn and Frank Farmer. “Nostalgia for What Never Was: If Only English Could.” Review of Cross Language Relations in Composition, edited by Bruce Horner, Min-Zahn Lu, and Paul Kei Matsuda; and Affirming Students’ Right to Their Own Language: Bridging Language Policies and Pedagogical Practices, ed. Jerrie Cobb Scott, Dolores Y. Straker, and Laurie Katz. JAC,vol. 31, 2011, pp.794-803.
“Physical and Psychic Geographies in the Works of Zora Neale Hurston and Marita Bonner.” The Zora Neale Hurston Forum, vol. 22, Winter 2010, pp. 46-58.
COURSES TAUGHT
- Advanced Writing Theory and Practices
- Introduction to African American English
- Introduction to Linguistics
- Written Communication
Dr. Jacques L. Digbeu
Assistant Professor
Location: Harvey Library, 5th Floor, Language Lab
Phone: 757-728-6922
E-mail: lacques.digbeu@hamptonu.edu
Dr. Jacques L. Digbeu
Assistant Professor
Location: Harvey Library, 5th Floor, Language Lab
Phone: 757-728-6922
E-mail: jacques.digbeu@hamptonu.edu
Jacques Lohourou Digbeu, Ph.D.
Dr. Jacques L. Digbeu is a graduate of the University of Limoges and the prestigious University Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III Talence in France. He is the holder of a Master’s Degree in German, a DEA (Degree of Advanced Studies in German) and a Ph. D. in German Studies. He is the author of the book Siegfried Kracauer et les grands Débats intellectuels de son Temps (Siegfried Kracauer and the main intellectual Debates of his Time), that was published in Germany in 2005. After teaching several years in France, Dr. Digbeu served as a German and French Professor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is currently teaching at Hampton University.
E-mail: jacques.digbeu@hamptonu.edu
Mr. Brarailty (Rel) Dowdell
Assistant Professor and Director of Film Studies
Location: Armstrong Hall, 314
Phone: 757-728-5770
E-mail: brarailty.dowdell@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Film Studies, English Composition
Mr. Brarailty (Rel) Dowdell
Assistant Professor
Location:Armstrong Hall, 314
Phone:757-727-5770
Email:brarailty.dowdell@hamptonu.edu
Expertise:Film Studies, English Composition
Courses Taught:
Written Communication I & II, Introduction to Filmmaking, Film Festival Planning, Professional Internship for Film, Film Criticism, Film Business
Education:
MFA, Film and Screenwriting, Boston University (1996), B.A. English (Magna Cum Laude) Fisk University (1993)
Research and Scholarly Interests:
Professor Dowdell’s research focuses on the constantly evolving history of film and its components, in addition to independent filmmaking and low-budget filmmaking and screenwriting.
Professor Dowdell’s has an extensive and very accomplished film and screenwriting background. His films have been acquired and distributed by major studies such as Sony Pictures and Lionsgate and screened at prestgious international venues such as Berlin and Cannes. His most recent film, his third feature which was a documentary entitled Where’s Daddy?, examined perspectives on the child support system and the specific effects and consequences to African-American families, with emphasis on the experience of fathers as participants in the system. The film has been acquired as a credible resource of academic study in the libraries of Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, M.I.T., Duke University, Vanderbilt University, Swarthmore College, UCLA, University of Southern California, Syracuse University of Law, Hofstra Law School, and Seton Hall Law Library.
The film also has a 100% consensus critics rating on the top film review website, Rotten Tomatoes:
Rotten Tomatoes link to Where’s Daddy?:: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/wheres_daddy
Link to Professor Dowdell’s biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rel_Dowdell”
Mrs. Kristi Emerson
Instructor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 308
Phone: 757-727-5415
E-mail: kristi.emerson@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Spanish
Mrs. Phyllis Harrigan
Administrative Assistant
Location: Armstrong Hall, 217
Phone: 757-727-5421
E-mail: phyllis.harrigan@hamptonu.edu
Dr. Nicholas Huber
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 222
Phone: 757-675-2248
E-mail: nicholas.huber@hamptonu.edu
Dr. Nicholas Huber
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 222
Phone: 757-675-2248
E-mail: nicholas.huber@hamptonu.edu
Nick Huber holds a Ph.D. in Literature from Duke (2019), a B.A. in English from Christopher Newport (2007), and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark (2022). From 2008-2011, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan. You can find his publications in the journals Theory & Event, The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, and the Open Library of the Humanities.
Dr. Karima K Jeffrey-Legette
Associate Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 333
Phone: 757-727-5466
E-mail: karima.jeffrey-legette@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: African-American Literature, Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Caribbean Literature, Postcolonial Studies
Dr. Karima K Jeffrey-Legette
Associate Professor
Location:Armstrong Hall, 333
Phone: 757-727-5466
E-mail: karima.jeffrey-legette@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: African-American Literature, Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Caribbean Literature, Postcolonial Studies
Courses Taught:
Karima Jeffrey-Legette specializes in Black Studies, African-American Literature, Multi-Ethnic American Literature, Caribbean Literature, Postcolonial Studies and Womanist/Feminist Theory. She is especially interested in Interdisciplinary Studies, incorporating film, music, visual arts, and other forms of media and technology into her courses. At Hampton University, she instructs ENG 101/102 (Written Communication), ENG 303/304 (Ethnic Literature), ENG 307 (Caribbean Literature and Film), ENG 311/312 (American Literature), and ENG 313/314 (African-American Literature). She has offered specialized courses in ENG 316 (African Writers II), ENG 323 (The Bible as Literature), ENG 430 (Senior Thesis), and ENG 403 (Contemporary Themes in African-American Literature).
Education:
Dr. Jeffrey-Legette received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, from Swarthmore College. Her Master of Arts degree was completed at Lehman College of the City University of New York, and the doctorate was conferred by Howard University.
Research/Scholarly Interests:
Notable works by her are: “George Lamming’s ‘The Boy and the Sea’–A Littoral Artist’s Experimentation with Language and a Postcolonial Examination of the Self” (Anthurium, 2015), “Mother of a New World? Stereotypical Representations of Black Women in Three Postapocalyptic Films” (Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 2014), “George Lamming’s IN THE CASTLE OF MY SKIN: A Littoral Figure Discovers Self-Identity and Authorial Language” (Journal of Literature and Art Studies, 2012), “Littoralia or the Littoral as Trope: Developing a Paradigm of Post-coloniality”(C.L.R. James Journal, 2010), and biographies on Nalo Hopkinson (THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT, 2020) and Langston Hughes (ICONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, 2011). Currently, she is completing a two-book project: WATCH IT! : A Scholarly Investigation of Speculative Film and Moving Images by or about Black Women and Girls, which should be available in print November/December of 2022 and BLACK GIRLS RIGHT/WRITE THE FUTURE: SPECULATIVE FICTION BY OR ABOUT BLACK WOMEN AND GIRLS, which should be completed and in print by 2024.
Honors/Awards:
Joining a community of leading scholars in the humanities, Dr. Jeffrey-Legette is the recipient of a 2022-2023 Residential Fellowship at the National Humanities Center (NHC); the fellowship was awarded to support her efforts in completing BLACK GIRLS WRITE. Additional, honorary distinctions include a UNCF/Mellon Faculty Residency Release Time Award (2020), another UNCF/Mellon Faculty Residency Summer Research Award at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (2016), an invitation for summer study with Toril Moi at the National Humanities Center (2011), participation in the University of Richmond Tocqueville Seminar on Transatlantic Studies (2011), and a New York University Faculty Resource Network Summer Seminar on Classical Studies and Postcolonial Literature (2013). Dr. Jeffrey-Legette has coordinated two UNCF/Mellon Teaching and Learning Institutes at Hampton University: most recently, “”Black Girls Right/Write the Future!!!” (June 2018), and one entitled ”Extending a Legacy of International Presence and Outreach at HBCUs-Social Justice and Educational Policy for the Twenty-First Century” (August 2011). She has moderated panels and been a presenter at various professional conferences. In addition to attending events such as these to support her research, teaching, and service, Dr. Jeffrey-Legette is the recipient of Faculty Development Awards from the Historically Black Colleges/Universities-Faculty Development Network (2012), the University of Richmond Tocqueville Seminars (2011-2012), UNCF/Mellon Programs (2010-2020), Hampton University (2009), and Hope Collge (2005). Of these achievements, she is most proud of her work with UNCF/Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows (MMUF). Having been a MMUF fellow at her undergraduate alma mater, she sees it as a privilege to support the insights and intellectual curiosities of a younger generation–who will ideally go on to join the professoriate.
Dr. Gibreel Kamara
Associate Professor of English
Location: Armstrong Hall 303-A
Phone: 757-637-2817
E-mail: gibreel.kamara@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: African American Literature, Africana Studies, Diaspora Studies
Dr. Allan Morelos
Assistant Professor of English
Location: Armstrong Hall 237-A
Phone: 757-637-3676
E-mail: allan.morelos@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition, Linguistics
Dr. James Richie
Assisitant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 345
E-mail: james.richie@hamptonu.edu
Dr. Ekkarat Ruanglertsilp
Assistant Professor of English
Location: Armstrong Hall 237-B
Phone: 757-728-6089
E-mail: ekkarat.ruanglertsilp@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition, Linguistics
Dr. Hannah Saltmarsh
Assistant Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall 234
Phone: 757-728-6221
E-mail: hannah.saltmarsh@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition, Poetry and Poetics
Dr. Cheik Sene
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Location: Harvey Library Language Lab, 5th Floor
Phone:
E-mail: cheikh.sene@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Francophone and Hispanophone Caribbean Literature, Diaspora Studies, Afro-hispanic Literature
Dr. José Luis Suarez Morales
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Location: Armstrong Hall 307-B
Phone: 757-727-5055
E-mail: jose.suarezmorales@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Latin American Novel
Dr. Randolph Walker Jr.
Associate Professor
Location: Armstrong Hall, 406
Phone: 757-637-2106
E-mail: randolph.walker@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Creative Writing, Law & Literature, Composition
Dr. Randolph Walker Jr.
Assistant Professor
Location: Harvey Library, 406
Phone: 757-637-2106
Email: randolph.walker@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Creative Writing, Law & Literature, Composition
Randolph (Ran) Walker, Jr. is the author of eighteen books. His short stories, flash fiction, microfiction, and poetry have appeared in a variety of anthologies and journals. Prior to becoming a writer and educator, he worked in magazine publishing and practiced law in Mississippi.
He is the winner of the Indie Author Project’s 2019 National Indie Author of the Year Award (selected by judges from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, IngramSpark, St. Martin’s Press, and Writer’s Digest), the 2019 Black Caucus of the American Library Association Best Fiction Ebook Award, and the 2018 Virginia Indie Author Project Award for Adult Fiction. He is also the recipient of both a 2005 Mississippi Arts Commission/NEA artist grant and a 2006 artist mini-grant. He served as an Artist-in-Residence with the Mississippi Arts Commission in 2006. Additionally, he is a past participant in the Hurston-Wright Writers Week Workshop and is the recipient of a fellowship from the Callaloo Writers Workshop.
His novel Mojo’s Guitar was translated by renowned French translator Philippe Loubat-Delranc and published in April 2015 by Éditions Autrement as Il était une fois Morris Jones. The novel was recently republished in May of 2019 as a part of Éditions Autrement’s “Les Grands Romans” collection.
His first collection of poetry, Most of My Heroes Don’t Appear On No Stamps: Kwansabas, was published in August of 2019 by The University of Hell Press, based out of Portland, Oregon.
Ran is a graduate of Morehouse College (BA in English), Pace University (MS in Publishing), and George Washington University Law School (JD). He also has a Certificate in Publishing from New York University and has done graduate work in English at Mississippi State University.
Ran is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Hampton University and lives in Virginia with his wife and much better half, Lauren, and his amazing little rockstar daughter, Zoë.
Courses Taught: Introduction to Fiction, Creative Writing Workshop, Law & Literature, Law & Hip Hop, Written Communication I and II
Research/Scholarship Interests: African American speculative fiction, flash fiction, microfiction, law and literature, publishing, law and hip hop
Website: http://www.ranwalker.com/
Dr. Melody Williams
Assistant Professor of English
Location: Armstrong Hall 306
Phone: 757-727-5709
E-mail: melody.williams@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Composition, The Bible as Literature, Religious Literature
Ms. Aline Xavier de Araujo
Instructor
Location: Armstrong Hall 307-A
Phone: 757-727-5339
E-mail: aline.xavierdearaujo@hamptonu.edu
Expertise: Spanish
