Key Qualifications

Dr. Blyden’s interests include the study of the history of Africa, with a focus on its relationship to the outside world, particularly with the African diaspora. Dr. Blyden also has an interest in issues relating to women and children in Africa, past and present. At GW, Dr. Blyden teaches such courses as: “African History to 1880”, “Modern African History”, “Women in Africa”, “African Humanities”, “Africa and Africans in the Atlantic World”. While at the University of Texas, Dallas, where she was an Assistant Professor from Spring 1998 to 2001, Dr. Blyden taught undergraduate and graduate level courses in African, African-American, and African Diaspora history including: "Early African American History (Slavery to Reconstruction)"; "African-Americans and Africa: Links in History"; "African Diaspora"; "African-Americans in the Twentieth Century" (Reconstruction to Civil Rights Movement); "African History to 1880"; "Modern African History", "Ideas of Africa in Western thought”; "Slavery and Race Relations, Postcolonialism and African History and Literature".

Dr. Blyden is the Director of the Africana Studies Program at George Washington University.

Education

Ph.D. (History) Yale University, May 1998

M.A. (History) Yale University, 1989

B.A. (History, with honors/International Relations) Mount Holyoke College,1987

Relevant Experience

Dr. Blyden was a consultant for “In Motion: the African-American Migration Experience”, a digital archive project for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library (launched February 2005). She has country experience in Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Selected publications and activities include:

“‘Back to Africa’ The Migration of New World Blacks to Sierra Leone and Liberia”, in Organization of American Historians Magazine of History, Volume 18, Number 3 (April 2004), pp. 23-25.

Entry: “Non-African Diasporas” in Encyclopedia of Twentieth-century African history/ editor, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza ; deputy editor, Dickson Eyoh. London; New York: Routledge, 2003 pp. 395-398.

The Search for Anna Erskine: African-American Women in nineteenth century Liberia in, Stepping Forward: Black Women in Africa and the Americas, Catherine Higgs, Barbara Moss, Earline Rae Ferguson, Ohio University Press, 2002 pp. 31-43 .

West Indians in West Africa, 1808-1880: A Diaspora in reverse, University of Rochester Press, 2000

Spring 2000: Updated Sierra Leone entry for Encyclopedia Britannica.

July 2003: Invited Panelist, “Diaspora African Heritage”. Africano Conference, Miami Florida, sponsored by The Foundation for Democracy in Africa.

November 2001: Invited guest speaker, Office of International Programs Global Perspectives Series 2001–2002, Winston Salem State University, Winston Salem, NC. Lecture: “We Have The cause Of Africa At Heart: New World Blacks Return To Africa”.

Languages

Can read French and Russian (limited speaking ability in both languages).

Fluent in Krio (lingua franca spoken in Sierra Leone).

Professional Affiliations

African Studies Association

Phi Beta Delta Honor Society, Beta Omicron

Xi Chapter of Sigma Iota Rho (Mount Holyoke College)

Member US Achievement Academy

Citizenship

United States