Brown & Associates

Carmaletta Williams, PhD

Carmaletta WilliamsProfessor of English and African American Studies, Johnson County Community College

EDUCATION
  • Participant, NEH Summer Institute. “African Americans in the Georgia Lowcountry. Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, GA 2013
  • Research Fellow, Yale University, Fall 2007
  • Participant, NEH Summer Institute, “African American Struggles for Freedom 1866- 1965” Harvard University, July 2002.
  • Ph.D., University of Kansas. Lawrence, KS. May 2001; Major: English. Diss. “Only the Devils Danced: African American Migration.” Director, Maryemma Graham, Ph. D., Defended cum laude.
  • M. A.; University of Missouri - Kansas City; Kansas City, MO; 1987; Major: English
  • B. A.; University of Missouri - Kansas City; Kansas City, MO; 1984; Major: English

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL WRITING EXPERIENCES

  • (with John Edgar Tidwell, edited with Prologue and Epilogue), My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes’s Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926 – 1938. Athens: U Georgia P 2013.
  • “I’m Lonely, I’ll Build Me a Family: Functional Family Relationships in the Life and Art of Langston Hughes,” to appear in Critical Insights: Langston Hughes, ed. R. Baxter Miller Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2011
  • Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me: Langston Hughes in the Classroom. NCTE High School Literature Series. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 2006
  • Of Two Spirits: American Indian and African American Oral Histories. e-book. Co-ed with Mike Tosee. Lawrence, KS: U of Kansas, 2007. www.shiftingborders.ku.edu/oh.html
  • “Mother to Son: The Letters of Langston and Carrie Hughes.” Essay co-written with Regennia Williams. Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes. Eds. John Edgar Tidwell and Cheryl Ragar. University of Missouri Press 2007.
  • (Book Review) My Soul is anchored: poems from the mourning Katrina national writing project. Harrisonburg, VA: Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University, 2006; and Hurricane Blues: Poems about Katrina and Rita. Phillip C. Kolin and Susan Swartout, eds. Cape Girardeau: Southeast Missouri State UP, 2006. African American Review, Volume 42, Number 2, 2008.
  • (Book Review) Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom. By Tiya Miles. Berkeley: U California P, 2005. American Studies with American Studies International. Lawrence: University of Kansas. Spring 2006. Vol. 147, Number 1. Pgs. 168-170.
  • “Literary Salons” (entry) The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Eds. Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman. New York:Routledge. 2004. Volume 2. Pgs. 1080-83
  • “William Attaway” (entry) The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. Eds. Cary D. Wintz and Paul Finkelman. New York: Routledge. 2004. Vol. 1. Pgs. 63-64
  • Reading and Remembering Langston Hughes: A study guide. For the Langston Hughes Poetry Circles. A Kansas- and nation-wide project funded by the Kansas Humanities Council and the University of Kansas, 2002.
  • (Introduction). “An Academic Discussion Regarding The Future of the Race.” Kansas English. Volume 85, Number 1, Spring 2000
  • (Introduction). “Plateaus of Uncertainty: Symposia of Legacies and the Future of the Race” Cottonwood 56. Fall 2000 42-43
  • “Shaped In and Shaping Community—A Teacher Becoming: An Interview with Carmaletta Williams of Johnson County Community College.” Kansas English, Volume 83, Summer 1998
  • Zora: A Study Guide for Crossing Boundaries/Making Connections: African-Americans in American Culture; Topeka: Kansas Humanities Council, 1995.
  • Women Preserving the Culture: A Study Guide for Crossing Boundaries/Making Connections: African Americans in American Culture; Topeka: Kansas Humanities Council, 1995.
  • Why Teach Africa? A Study Guide. University of Kansas; African, African-American Studies Department and the African Resource Center, Lawrence, 1996.
CREATIVE WRITING

  • “Lacey’s Longing.” Amerasia Journal Volume 26, number 3, 2000/2001
  • “America II” (poem); Centerpiece; Johnson County Community College; 1997
    “A Matter of Respect” (short story); Number One ‘86; University of Missouri; 1986
VIDEOGRAPHIC ACTIVITIES

  • Sankofa: My Journal Home; videotape profile of Ghana, West Africa. Writer, photographer and narrator. Johnson County Community College. September 1997. Winner of the League for Innovation’s “Innovation of the Year” Award.
  • Kente, Libation and the High Priest; videotape. Interviewed by Virginia Freeman, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASAALH) national conference. Overland Park, KS: Johnson County Community College. September 1997.
  • A Conversation with Zora Neale Hurston with Virginia Freeman; Videotape performance and interview with the President of the Kaw Valley Chapter of the Association for the Study of African-American Life and History, December 1996.
PROFESSIONAL and TEACHING EXPERIENCES

  • Visiting Scholar. “Don’t Deny My Voice.” NEH Summer Institute. The University of Kansas Summer 2013.
  • Keynote presention. The Dole Center for Politics. The University of Kansas. February 2012
  • Visiting Scholar, “Summer Teacher’s Institute on Africa.” The African Resource Center. University of Kansas, July 2011
  • Visiting Scholar. Language Matters. “Teaching Toni Morrison in Translation.” The Toni Morrison Symposium. Paris, France. October 2011.
  • Visiting Scholar, “Making the Wright Connection,” NEH Summer Institute on Richard Wright, University of Kansas, July 2010
  • Executive Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Johnson County Community College, January 2008 to 2011
  • Professor of English and African American Studies; Johnson County Community College; Overland Park, KS; 1992 to present;
  • Adjunct Instructor, Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, KS, 1988-1992
  • Adjunct Instructor; Longview Community College; Lee's Summit, MO; 1988-1992
  • Project Manager, C & C Excavation and Construction Co., Kansas City, Mo 1984-1988
  • Research Associate; Department of Radiation Oncology. University of Kansas Medical Center; Kansas City, KS; 1982-1984
  • Executive Staff Assistant; University of Missouri-Kansas City; Health Sciences Center; 1971 – 1981
AWARDS/ACCOMPLISHMENTS/RECOGNITION (select list)

I have been the recipient of more than forty awards and honors from different academic, professional, and community organizations. The following represent something of this range:

  • Publication Award, Johnson County Community College. My Dear Boy: The Letters from Carrie Hughes to Langston Hughes 1926-1938. U of Georgia P, 2013.
  • The Modern Language Association. Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. Member 2009-2012. Co-chair 2010-011; Chair 2011-2012.
  • The Kansas City Globe. Named as one of the 100 Most Influential African-Americans in Greater Kansas City, 2009.
  • Diversity Award, Johnson County Community College, 2005. First recipient of this award.
  • Distinguished Service Award, Johnson County Community College, 2006-2007, 2004- 2005, 2000-2001, 1998-1999.
  • Who’s Who Among American College Professors. 2004, 2005, 2006
  • Minority Opportunity Fellowship Grant. University of Kansas. 2001, 2000, 1999.
  • University of Kansas Black Faculty and Staff Council’s Student Achievement Award. April 2001, 2000, 1999.
  • University of Kansas Black Faculty and Staff Council’s Alumni Award, April 2000.
  • 1997 Kansas Professor of the Year Award; Awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Council for Advancement and Support of Education, October 1997
  • Burlington Northern-Sante Fe Faculty Achievement Award; JCCC; April 1997.
  • Fulbright-Hays Fellowship for Study in Ghana, West Africa, Summer 1997.
CONSULTANTSHIPS

  • National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Education, proposal review panels, 2011, 2010, 2009
  • Manuscript Reviewer, The Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. 2009, 2010, 2011
  • “Shifting Borders of Race and Identity: Intersections of African American and Native American cultures.” Lead Oral History Faculty. Ford Foundation Grant to the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University. 2003-2006.
  • L’Ecole de Postes et Telecommunications, in Guinea West Africa. At the invitation of the Guinean government, I established a faculty exchange between L’Ecole Nationale de Kipe and Johnson County Community College. 2000.
  • Billionaire Entertainment Group. Interviewed South Africans about their lives during and after the fall of apartheid for a documentary film. 2001.
  • Manuscript reader for several major publishers, including Prentice-Hall, Polity, and Bedford on African American history; American and African American literature; composition and rhetoric; technical writing; and developmental writing.
  • Humanities Scholar. National Poetry Project on Langston Hughes. University of Kansas. 2003.