Faculty and Staff

Department Chair and Advisor

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Dr. Claybrook sitting in office in front of bookshelves

Associate Professor

Office: PSY-301
Phone: 562.985.5180
Email: m.keith.claybrook@csulb.edu

Professional Memberships

  • National Council for Black Studies
  • African American Intellectual History Society (Lifetime Member)
  • Association for the Study of African American Life and History (Lifetime Member)
  • African Heritage Studies Association

Professional and Community Leadership

  • Jan. 2025 - Present - African American Cultural Center of Long Beach, Board of Directors
    • Board Secretary Jan. 2026- Present

Education

  • May 2016 - Cultural Studies, PhD, Claremont Graduate University
  • Aug. 2005 - General Education, MA, Loyola Marymount University
  • Dec. 2004 - History, BA, Loyola Marymount University
  • May 2002 - African American Studies, BA, Loyola Marymount University

Certificates

  • Feb. 2024- Social & Behavioral Research- Basic/ Refresher, CITI Program
  • Aug. 2023- Online Teaching Certification on Canvas, Cerritos Community College
  • Dec. 2012- Africana Studies Certificate, Claremont Graduate University
  • May 1999- Inter-cultural Competency, Loyola Marymount University

Badges

  • Nov. 2025- Chair Success Program, NCFDD
  • Mar. 2021- Faculty Success Program, NCFDD 

Courses Taught

(*Indicates courses developed by Claybrook)

  • African American History to 1865
  • African American History from 1865-Present
  • Black Los Angeles*
  • Black Student Movement* (Forthcoming)
  • Critical Thinking in Africana Studies
  • Economic Development in the African American Community
  • History of Slavery
  • Introduction to Africana Studies
  • Introduction to Hip Hop
  • Introduction to Racial and Ethnic Studies
  • Politics of the African American Community
  • Racism and Sexism: An Analytic Approach (Capstone)
  • Research Methods in Africana Studies
  • Special Topics: Pathways to Men's Success

Books

  • , Kendall Hunt Press, Forthcoming 2026. (eBook and Print)
  • Building the Basics: A Handbook for Pursuing Academic Excellence in Africana Studies, 2nd Edition, Kendall Hunt Press, 2021. (eBook and Print)
  • Building the Basics: A Handbook for Pursuing Academic Excellence in Africana Studies, Kendall Hunt Press, 2021. (eBook)

Book Chapters

  • , (Lanham: MD, Hamilton Books, 2026.)

Journals

  • 鈥,鈥 Siyabonana: Journal of Africana Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Summer 2023, pgs. 41- 79.
  • 鈥,鈥 Journal of African American Studies, March 17, 2023,
  • 鈥溾 Journal of Black Studies, March 6, 2023
  • 鈥,鈥 Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 53, Nos. 4, 2022, pgs 323- 345,
  • 鈥湵,鈥 Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 52, Nos. 4, 2021, pgs. 359-378.
  • 鈥淧utting Some Soul into Critical Thinking: Towards an Approach and Process for Critical Thinking in Africana Studies,鈥 International Journal of Africana Studies, Vol. 21, Nos. 1-2, 2020, pgs. 126- 147.

Peer Reviewed Blogs

  • ,鈥 Black Perspectives, March 19, 2025.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, November 15, 2024.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, October 9, 2024.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, April 3, 2024.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, January 18, 2024.

  • 鈥溾 Black Perspectives, January 11, 2024.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, November 28, 2023.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, November 6, 2023.

  • 鈥溾 Black Perspectives, September 26, 2023.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, May 9, 2023.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, February 21, 2023.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, January 16, 2023.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, December 9, 2022.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, October 28, 2022.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, August 11, 2022.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, June 23, 2022.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, April 11, 2022.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, March 1, 2022.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, September 10, 2021.

  • 鈥,鈥 Black Perspectives, August 13, 2021.

Essays

  • ,鈥 in The Researcher, April 30, 2025.

  • 鈥 in The Researcher, July 14, 2025.            

Podcast/Media Interviews

  • the Obehi Podcast with Obehi Ewanfoh, August 15, 2025.

  • GOT TIME with Christopher John (C.J.), August 12, 2025.

  • ,鈥 with Ashley Newby, May 7, 2025.

  • 鈥 Nicole D. Vick Live!, February 22, 2024.

  • Reparations: Who Will Pay Reparations on Our Soul?鈥 Afrikan/ Black Coalition, February 24, 2022.
  • 鈥,鈥 History Stories, October 1, 2020.
  • 鈥,鈥 The Denver Channel.com, August 28, 2020.
  • Today in L.A. on NBC4, Juneteenth Interview, June 16, 2020

Tenured/Tenure-Track Faculty and Full-Time Lecturers

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Eva Bohler

Assistant Professor

Office: PSY-309
Phone: 562.985.8686
Email: eva.bohler@csulb.edu

Research Interests

  • African American Intellectual Histories
  • Africana Womanism
  • Black women in the Civil Rights Movement
  • Afrocentricity

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Africology and African American Studies, Temple University, 2021.
  • Master of Arts, English, Arcadia University, 2012.
  • Master of Arts, African American Studies, Temple University, 2006.
  • Bachelor of Arts, Humanities-Prelaw, Michigan State University, 2004.

Teaching Areas

  • Racial and Ethnic Studies
  • Africana Womanism
  • African American women in the Civil Rights Movement

Selected Publications

  • "Howard Thurman's Jesus and the Disinherited as a Framework for Victory," Black Perspectives, April 13, 2023.
  • "The Lyrical Activism of Sister Souljah," Black Perspectives, August 17, 2023.  
  • "Fighting to be heard: Black women and the Suffrage Movement," ABC-CLIO.
  • "It's not just a man's world: Examining the contributions of Black women to the Civil Rights Movement," ABC-CLIO.
  • "Portraits of Resilience: Examining the Scholarship of Dr. Carey H. Latimore," Siyabonana: The Journal of Africana Studies Special Issue: Maa Kheru: Honoring our Ancestor's Contributions to Africana Studies (forthcoming).
  • "Branches from Igi Ose': The Geneological Impact of Afrocentricity," in Afrocentricity: Generations of Theory in Practice, Edited by Aaron X. Smith. New York, NY: Universal Write Publications (forthcoming).
  • "Reflections and New Directions: Examining the Impact of Africana Womanism," in New Perspectives in Africana Studies: Volume 1, Edited by Crystal Edwards and Abul Pitre. Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books (forthcoming).

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Alice Nicholas

Africologist and Assistant Professor

Office: PSY-303
Phone: 562.985.4697
Email: alice.nicholas@csulb.edu

Research

Africology / Afrocentricity, African American Studies, Ethnic and Cultural Studies, Afrocentric Womanism, Africana Womanist Studies, Harlem Renaissance, Africana Literary Traditions, Zora Neale Hurston, Toni Morrison, Black Poetry, Black Theatre, Afrocentric Literary Theory, Liberation Theory, Liberation Movements, Social and Political Thought, Comparative Ethnic and Global Experience

Education

  • Ph.D., Africology and African American Studies, Temple University, 2019. Dissertation: Liberatory Expressions: Black Women, Resistance and the Coded Word
  • M.A., Africology, California State University, Dominguez Hills, 2013.
  • B.A., English Literature and African American Studies (dual major), California State University, Dominguez Hills, 1993.

Teaching Areas

  • Introduction to Africana Studies
  • Introduction to Racial and Ethnic Studies
  • Introduction to Comparative Ethnic and Global Societies
  • Introduction to African American Literature
  • Africana Literary Traditions
  • Key Movements: Harlem Renaissance
  • Black Movements of the 1960s
  • Introduction to Africana Women鈥檚 Studies
  • Africana Womanism: Intellectual History
  • African American Women of the Civil Rights Movement
  • Africana Theatre
  • African American History, Part 1
  • African American Experience in the U.S.
  • African World People and Societies
  • Dimensions of Racism
  • History and Significance of Race in America

Selected Publications

  • 鈥淶ora Neale Hurston and the Coded Word,鈥 Bethune-Cookman University (chapter in edited volume). Lexington Press (forthcoming)
  • 鈥淯mfundalai: Dr. Kariamu Welsh and the Afrocentric Essence of Unity,鈥 Siyabonana: The Journal of Africana Studies. Special Issue: Maa Kheru: Honoring our Ancestor鈥檚 Contributions to Africana Studies (forthcoming)
  • 鈥淐hick Webb, The King of Swing,鈥 Black Perspectives (African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS)), November 22, 2023. 
  • 鈥淪tory #8,112,016 from 10 Million Stories; Obsidian.鈥 Voices From Leimert Park, Redux. Shonda Buchanan (ed). Teshai Publishers / Harriet Tubman Press. Loyola Marymount University. (2017): 98-99.
  • 鈥淭he Hum: Creative and Covert Communication as Resistance in Africana Literature,鈥 Imhotep: Graduate Student Journal. Temple University (2016): 104-107.
  • 鈥淲est Africanisms,鈥 SAGE Encyclopedia of African Cultural Heritage in North America (2015).
  • Nicholas, Alice L. 鈥淭he Politics of Identity: Blurring the Lines between Africana Womanism and Black Feminism,鈥 Imhotep. 1.1.: Graduate Student Journal. Temple University (2014): 22-26.
  • 鈥淪tory #4,112,011; A鈥檌ght Now,鈥 African American Review 46.1 (2014): 145.
  • 鈥淪tory #4,132,011; Idioms,鈥 African American Review 46.1 (2014): 145-146.

Archived Works

  • 鈥淲eek #11 Reflection. Into the Forest: Rumination of Human Stripped,鈥 (2021, January) Autry Museum of the American West, 鈥淐ollecting Community History Initiative: The West During COVID-19鈥
  • 鈥淲eek #14 Reflection. The Animal Kingdom: A Perspective on Game a Few Weeks into What Has Become the New Normal,鈥 (2021, January) Autry Museum of the American West, 鈥淐ollecting Community History Initiative: The West During COVID-19鈥

Creative Works - 10 Million Stories Series

  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 1: Sacred Songs (1999)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 2: Rebel Music; ditty of the determined, dreadlocked daughter of a drummer and a dreamer in the diaspora (2001)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 3: Stereotypical Sambos (2002)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 4: heat (2003)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 5: Ancestral Slant (2010)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 6: Parallel of Latitude (2011)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 7: Wild Indigo (2011)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 8: The Legendary Ms. Dorothy Lee Toy; A Living Biography (2012)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 8.1: The Village Caregivers: African American Women and the Survival of the African American Community: For Clarice Brown, A Living Biography (2016)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 9: Reflections of an Africologist (2020)
  • 10 Million Stories, Volume 10: Toward our Original Selves (forthcoming)

Professional Affiliations

  • National Council for Black Studies, Lifetime Member
  • Diopian Institute for Scholarly Advancement, Platinum Lifetime Member

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Uche Okafor

Lecturer

Office: PSY-307
Phone: 562.985.7843
Email: uche.okafor@csulb.edu

Academic Specialties / Areas of Interest

  • Africana Literature and Culture
  • Africana Theories of Gender Relationships
  • Third World Theories of Gender Relationships
  • Freshman Composition
  • Prebaccalaureate Language Skills
  • Creative Writing
  • Reimagining African Diaspora Families and Communities

Education Information (Degrees and Universities attended)

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Literary Studies, University of Nigeria, 2006; Dissertation:  A Comparative Study of Female Characters in the novels of Buchi Emecheta, Jamaica Kincaid and Alice Walker
  • Master of Arts Degree, Literature, University of Nigeria, 1993
  • Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education and English, University of Nigeria, 1987

Teaching Areas

  • African Literature and Culture
  • African American Literature and Culture
  • African American Theater
  • International Black Children鈥檚 Literature
  • Prebaccalaureate Language Skills
  • Freshman Composition
  • African American History to 1865

Professional Affiliations

  • National Council for Black Studies
  • Modern Language Association

Community Affiliations

  • Los Angeles World Affairs Council
  • Odinamba Women鈥檚 Cultural Association of Southern California

Special Distinctions

  • On September 17-18 2014, Dr. Okafor participated in the World Peace Summit tagged 鈥淭he Summit for the World Alliance for Religions of Peace鈥 in Seoul South Korea. Her paper was entitled鈥 Women as Peacemakers: The African Example鈥
  • On February 14 2015, and June 20 2015 respectively, Dr. Okafor made guest appearances on a television show Yaba TV Show on Channel 13 KCOP Los Angeles.

Dr. Okafor's Website

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Khonsura A. Wilson

Associate Professor 

Office: PSY-305
Phone: 562.985.8694
Email: khonsura.a.wilson@csulb.edu

Specialties

  • Afrocentric Theory and Praxis
  • Africana Philosophy (Aesthetics, Creativity, Spirituality, Ontology)
  • African American Social Thought (17th-20th century)
  • African Art and Design History
  • African History and Social Thought

 

Education

  • Temple University, Doctor of Philosophy in African American Studies, 2005. Dissertation: Makuneferu, The Truly Beautiful and Effective: An Afrocentric Study of Select 20th Century Creative Intellectuals: Towards a Portrait and Paradigm of Creative Thought and Ideal Creative Practice.
  • Temple University, Master of Arts in African American Studies, 1999. Concentration: Afrocentric theory and social praxis, African creative theories, and diverse modes of creative expression.
  • Rhode Island School of Design,  Master of Arts in Teaching, 1994. Advanced training in curriculum design.
  • Rhode Island School of Design, Bachelor of Fine Arts, 1992. Concentrations: Printmaking, multimedia illustration, sculpture, graphic design, art history, African literature, and Ancient Mexican art and civilization.
  • Brown University, Liberal Arts Courses, 1989-90. Areas of Study: African dance, Spanish culture, and language.

Courses Taught

  • AFRS 110 Introduction to Africana Studies
  • AFRS 150 Critical Thinking
  • AFRS 155 African American Music
  • AFRS 160 Introduction to Africana Art
  • AFRS 255 Introduction to Hip Hop
  • AFRS 330 Politics of the African American Community
  • AFRS 400 African American Social Thought
  • AFRS 363 African Art 

Publications

  1. Wilson, K. A. (2005). Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge. In M. K. Asante & A. Mazama (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Black Studies (Vol. 1, pp. 295-297). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
  2. Wilson, K. A. (2009d). Khonsu. In M. K. Asante & A. Mazama (Eds.), Encyclopedia of African Religions (pp. 363). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, Inc.
  3. Wilson, K. A. (2009k). Shedj-her-kek em Maa-aku-neferu: "Illuminating the Shadows of the African Creative Ideal" of W.E.B. DuBois. Journal of Black Studies 39(5), 744-760.
  4. Wilson, K. A. (2010c). Veil and Veener of Intellectual Aesthetics. Journal of Black Studies, 40(6), 1107-1118.
  5. Wilson, K.A (2013). The Cosmopolitan Creative Intellectual: The Creative Ideal of Paul Robeson. Journal of Black Studies, XX (X), 110.

Department Coordinator

Office: PSY-306
Phone: 562.985.4624
Email: chimbuko.tembo@csulb.edu

Part-Time Lecturers

  • Dr. Arnette Edwards
  • Dr. Zanele Furusa
  • Dr. Nathan Goodly
  • Prof. Marshall Goodman
  • Prof. Prince Gumbi
  • Dr. Jimmy Kirby, Jr.
  • Prof. Rita Page
  • Dr. Natalie Sartin
  • Dr. Sabrena Turner-Odom
  • Dr. La'Seanda Wesson
  • Prof. David Williams
  • Dr. Ngozi Williams
  • Dr. Aresa Allen-Rochester
  • Prof. Jill Grayson
  • Prof. Chimbuko Tembo
  • Dr. Elena Coleman
  • Dr. Zanele Furusa
  • Dr. Marcedes Butler

Professors Emeriti

  • Dr. Maulana Karenga
  • Professor Arnett Hartsfield
  • Dr. Alosi Moloi
  • Professor Amen Rahh
  • Dr. Jim C. Robinson
  • Dr. Ssendi Bede Ssensalo
  • Dr. Skyne Uku-Wertimer