Vice President
University at Buffalo SUNY Dr. Mbah is a West African Atlantic historian. He uses a variety of oral, written and material culture sources to examine changing labor systems, mobilities, slavery and abolition, and cosmopolitanism; as well as constructions of gender, sexuality, and ethnicity in West Africa between the 18th and 20th centuries.
Secretary
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Dr. Hickey’s research interests lie in spatialities in Africana literatures, visual arts, and music with focuses on travel, gender, food culture, ecology and ecophilosophies, birds, and Illichean conviviality.
Treasurer
Joseph C. Wilson Foundation Academy
Dr. Yoboué teaches French, Kiswahili, and African Culture.
Dr. Guillaume Semon Yoboué is a Teacher of French, Spanish, and Kiswahili for the City School District of Rochester, NY. He earned his Ph.D. in French Language and Literature, Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, University at Buffalo, NY in February 2023. His academic research interests lie in Religious practices in French, Caribbean, and African literatures; he has been presenting at NYASA conferences since 2014. His publications include “Werewere Liking, Un espoir dans le chaos” (“A Hope in the Chaos”). University at Buffalo Romance Studies Journal, May 2020; “Performing Africana Institutions: The Enchevêtrement of Futures and Faith in the Theater of Werewere Liking,” in the Transnational Africana Women’s Fictions Volume, Edited by Cheryl Sterling. New York: Routledge African Diaspora Literary and Cultural Studies, September 2021; Africana Faith Dramas: Religion, Thought, and Community in the Theatres of Maryse Condé, Koffi Kwahulé, and Werewere Liking. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2023. A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University at Buffalo, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, February 2023.
Professor Seth N. Asumah is State University of New York (SUNY) Distinguished Teaching Professor, Founding Chair and Professor of Africana Studies, Professor of Political Scienc, and Founding Director of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Institute at SUNY Cortland. Professor Asumah is a political scientist (comparative/international/Africa), Africanist, Africologist, DEIB intellectual/ practitioner, social justice activist, and a public intellectual. Dr. Asumah is president emeritus of NYASA and has served the organization in various capacities for over thirty years. His research areas include the political economy of development (the developing world), praetorian politics, political participation and democratic consolidation in Africa, decolonization, race and politics in America, and the politics of diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging (DEIB), and social justice. Professor Asumah is the author, coauthor, and coeditor of 12 books and over 100 book chapters, articles, essays and reports. His new book (with Mechthild Nagel), Reframing Diversity and Inclusive Leadership: Race, Gender, and Institutional Change is scheduled for publication in January 2024 by the State University of New York (SUNY) Press. Professor Asumah is a recipient of over 80 international, national, and local awards and honors, including the Outstanding Commitment for DEI Award (SUNY Oneonta, 2023), Dr. Hazel Dukes Distinguished Leadership Award (NAACP 2023), Steven J. Barnes Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award (2022, and five times winner, SUNY Cortland), Best Faculty Advisor Award, SUNY Cortland, National Role Model Award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (Minority INC. 2018), Student Government Association Outstanding Faculty Award (1998 & 2016); Alumni of Distinction Award, SUNY Oneonta (2016); the Professor Ali A. Mazrui Outstanding Publication and Educational Activities Award—NYASA (2014), the American Political Science Association Outstanding Teaching in Political Science Award (2008), SUNY Cortland Outstanding Achievement in Service Award (2014), New York African Studies Association (NYASA) Outstanding Service Award (2012); The African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) Outstanding Preconference Educational Leadership Award (2018), and the Rozanne Brooks Dedicated and Excellence in Teaching Award (1999). His honors include: the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the Political Science Honor Society of Pi Sigma Alpha, and the International Honor Society of Phi Beta Delta. He is a Carnagie-African Diaspora University of Ghana Distinguished Fellow, a Fulbright National Screening Committee Member, and a Boren Fellowship National Security Agency and National Screening Committee Member. He has been an invited presenter and keynote speaker at over 100 events and in 40 different countries.