Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • 2006          PhD: African Studies | Howard University
  • 2001          MA: Comparative & Regional Studies: Africa | American University
  • 1998          BA: Political Science | Johnson C. Smith University

Teaching Experiences

2015 to present: Associate Professor, Department of African Studies, Howard University Director of Graduate Studies. Teach Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa (created), Black Women & Popular Culture (created), and Social Media and Political Change in Africa, Pan Africanism.

2009 to 2015: Assistant Professor, Department of Pan African Studies, California State University, Los Angeles Taught Class, Race/Ethnicity, & Gender, Cultural Impact of Development, and Third World Women and Development.

Publications

I. Books

Kibona Clark, M., and Mohammed, W. (Eds). (2023). African Women in Digital Spaces: Redefining Social Movements on the Continent and in the Diaspora. Mkuki na Nyota Publishers.

(2018). Hip Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers. Ohio University Press.

Clark, M.K., Mnyandu, P., Azalia, L. (Eds). (2018). Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism. Lexington Press

Clark, M. K. and Koster, M. M. (Eds). (2014). Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa: Ni Wakati. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

II. Edited Volumes

Clark, M.K and Erie, J. (Eds). (2022). Special Issue: Hip hop in South Africa. Words Beats & Life: The Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Clark, M.K. (Ed) (2013). Special Issue: Hip Hop in Africa. Journal of Pan African Studies.

III. Select Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Clark, M.K. (2023). Women, Hip Hop, and Social Discourse in South Africa. The Culture: Hip Hop & Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, 108-111. The Baltimore Museum of Art.

Clark, M.K. (2019). Hip-Hop and human rights in Africa. Georgetown Journal of International Affairs. https://www.georgetownjournalofinternationalaffairs.org/online-edition/2019/2/4/hip-hop-and-human-rights-in-africa

Clark, M.K. (2018). Feminisms in African hip hop. Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, 17 (2), 383-400.

Clark, M. K. (2014). The role of new and social media in Tanzanian hip hop production. Les Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines, 216 (4), 1115-1136.

Clark, M. K. (2013). The struggle for authenticity and against commercialization in Tanzania. Journal of Pan African Studies, 6 (3), 5-21. http://www.jpanafrican.com/vol6no3.htm.

Clark, M. K. (2012). Hip hop as social commentary in Accra and Dar es Salaam. African Studies Quarterly, 13 (3), 23 – 36. http://asq.africa.ufl.edu/files/Clark-V13Is3.pdf.

IV. Select Book Chapters

Kibona Clark, M. & Nikoi, N. K. (2022). Studies of Gender and Popular Music in Africa. In Simone Krüger Bridge (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Global Popular Music (online edition). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190081379.013.53.

Kibona Clark, M. (2020) African Women Hip-Hop Artists Representing Transnational Identities: Y3 Fr3 Me Rebel. In: Yacob-Haliso O., Falola T. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of African Women’s Studies. Palgrave Macmillan.

Clark, M.K. (2019). The contemporary African Diaspora. In M. Azevedo (Ed), Africana Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora (263 – 289). Durham: Carolina Academic Press.

Clark, M.K. (2018). The evolution of a bicultural identity, in the shadows of Nyerere’s Pan Africanism. In M.K. Clark, P. Mnyandu, L. Azalia (Eds), Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism. Lexington Press.

Clark, M. K. (2014). Gendered representations among Tanzanian female emcees. In M.K. Clark and M. Koster (Eds), Ni Wakati: Hip Hop and Social Change in Africa. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

Clark, M. K. (2012). Identity formation and integration among bicultural immigrant Blacks. In J. A. Arthur, J. Takougang and T. Owusu (Eds.), Africans in Global Migration: Searching for Promised Lands (pp. 45 – 66). Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

Clark, M. K. (2009). Questions of identity among African immigrants in America. In I. Okpewho and N. Nzegwu (Eds.), The New African Diaspora (pp. 255-270). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

V. Select Book Reviews & Essays

Kibona Clark, M. (2021). A Personal Tribute to Professor Wamba dia Wamba. CODESRIA Bulletin 1: 53.

Kibona Clark, M. (2021). Hip hop and Pan Africanism: from Blitz the Ambassador to Beyoncé. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/hip-hop-and-pan-africanism-from-blitz-the-ambassador-to-beyonce-151680.

Kibona Clark, M. (2020). Leticia Kulwa Maganga and Junayna Al-Sheibani (authors). Rosebell Kagumire (co-editor). Consent as a Necessary Cultural Virtue in Tanzania. African Feminism. https://africanfeminism.com/consent-as-a-necessary-cultural-virtue-in-tanzania/.

Clark, M.K. (2018). Beef. In T. Riggs (Ed), St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture (pp. 38-42). Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press.

Clark, M.K. (2014). Review of the book Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music by Jesse Weaver Shipley. African Studies Quarterly.

Clark, M.K. (2013). Review of the book Hip Hop Africa: New African Music in a Globalizing World, by Eric Charry (Ed). African Studies Quarterly.

VI. Podcast Episodes (book reviews)

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2019 August). HHAP Episodes 42 & 43: Hip Hop and Activism in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Part 1 & Part 2 [Audio podcast]. Neva Again: Hip Hop Art, Activism, and Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa by edited by Adam Haupt, Quentin Williams, H Samy Alim & Emile Jansen (HSRC Press).

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2018 November 2). HHAP Episode 29: Ghanaian Hip Hop Scholar Joseph Ewoodzie on Hip Hop in the South Bronx [Audio podcast]. Break Beats in the Bronx: Rediscovering Hip-Hop’s Early Years by Joseph Ewoodzie (UNC Press).

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2018 January 1). HHAP Episode 19: Quentin Williams on Multilingualism & Hip Hop in South Africa [Audio podcast]. Remix Multilingualism: Hip Hop, Ethnography and Performing Marginalized Voice by Quentin Williams (Bloomsbury Press).

Digital Humanities & Photography Projects

Select Episodes (with artists & activists on hip-hop & social change in Africa)

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2020, June 15). HHAP Episode 57: Octopizzo on Hip Hop, Refugees, and Police Brutality in Kenya [Audio podcast].

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2020, February 13). HHAP Episode 51: Roma Mkatoliki, Challenging Hip Hop Activism in Tanzania [Audio podcast].

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2019 June 2). HHAP Episode 38: Keko on Hip Hop v. The Politics of Sexuality in Uganda [Audio podcast].

Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2019 May 9). HHAP Episode 37: Mohamed Benloulou on Hip-Hop, Politics, & (Black) Liberation in Algeria [Audio podcast]. Clark, M.K. (Producer). (2018 April 1). HHAP Episode 22: Thiat of Kuer Gui (of Y’en A Marre) on Hip Hop and Activism Beyond Senegal [Audio podcast].

Photography

September 2017. Contributor. Mfon: Women Photographers in the African Diaspora. Brooklyn Arts Council.

March 2015. Group Exhibition. I’ll Be Your Mirror. 1650 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA March 2014. Group Exhibition. City Life. Nafasi Art Space, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Select Keynote Lectures

February 2022. A John B. Slaughter Endowment Lecture: Hip Hop and the African Diaspora. The University of Maryland College Park.

October 2021. The Politics Around Race and Identity in South African Hip Hop. Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

June 2019. Today at Apple: Hip Hop and Representation. StoryMakers Festival. Apple Carnegie Library in Washington, DC

March 2019. Pan African Feminist Spaces in Hip Hop. Johnson C. Smith University

February 2019. Hip Hop in Africa Book Talk. Stony Brook University

February 2019. Eye on Africa Lecture Series: Gender, Sexuality, and Hip Hop in Africa. Michigan State University

October 2018. A Curtis Wilson Lecture: Hip Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers. Cleveland State University

May 2018. Hip Hop in Africa. Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

May 2017. Researching and Teaching African Politics: Everyday Politics, Power, and Protest in the Digital Age. Smith College

May 2016. Women in Leadership – The Underutilized Catalyst. Guest panelist at the annual meeting of the Diaspora Community of Tanzanians in America (DICOTA) in Dallas, TX. April 2016. Hip Hop Activism-Changing the World, One Beat at a Time. Guest panelist at the Annual General Meeting of Amnesty International USA in Miami, FL.

Select Presentations

April 2022: Panelist: Engaged Research in African Studies. African Studies Association of Africa conference. University of Cape Town.

November 2021: Panelist: Podcasting and Women in Africa. African Women in Media 2021 Conference. Virtual Conference.

May 2021: Panelist: Digital Innovation and the Future of Journalism. Innovation Week Tanzania 2021. Habari Hub: The Digital Journalism Innovation Ecosystem. Virtual Conference.

May 2021: Panelist: Black is King: Of Culture & Rhythm. Africa Soft Power Series. The Africa Soft Power Project. Virtual series.

November 2020: Panelist: Writing & Publishing in African Digital Humanities. 4th Princeton Annual Humanities Colloquium. Princeton University. Virtual webinar.

December 2018. Plenary: The Youth, Transformation and African Futures during the Revisiting the 1958 All-African Peoples’ Conference at the University of Ghana Legon.

July 2018. Panelist on African Fashion and Film: A Look at the Current and Future State of African Fashion at the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, DC

September 2016. Representations of African Feminism in Hip Hop. Guest panelist at the African Feminist Initiative at Penn State University in College Park.

June 2015. Afropolitan Identities: Representations of African immigrant experiences in African hip hop. General Assembly for the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in Dakar, Senegal.

July 2014. The Role of Social and New Media in Tanzanian Hip Hop Production and Dissemination. Ethnomusicology Symposium at the University of Dar es Salaam in Dar es Salaam.

Select Media Appearances & Interviews

  • August 2022: How Professors Are Making a Case For Hip-Hop In Academia, OkayPlayer.com
  • February 2021:        Radical Futures Now (Podcast)
  • February 2021:        POWER 98.7 PowerZone (South Africa: Radio)
  • January 2021:          My Black is Transnational (Podcast)
  • February 2019:      Africa Past & Present (Podcast)
  • September 2018:  The Scholars for UDC-TV
  • July 2018:               BBC Focus on Africa
  • June 2018:             Academics in Cars
  • May 2018:              WPFW Africa Today
  • April 2017:              Africa is a Country
  • March 2016:           Voice of America

select Grant Activity

2020-present Participant. African/Black Diaspora Studies Research Seminar. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

2019: Hip Hop in Africa Online Short Course. Center for African Studies, Howard University. $10,000

2016: Academic Faculty Enhancement & Enrichment. Center for African Studies, Howard University. $5,000

Fellowships 

2017            Summer Faculty Research Fellowship, Howard University. $15,000

2016            Summer Faculty Research Fellowship, Howard University. $10,000

2013–14       Fulbright Scholar – Department of Fine and Performing Art, University of Dar es Salaam.

Awards

2019                        Outstanding Community Service, The Association of Tanzanian Community

2017                        Outstanding Service, College of Arts & Sciences, Howard University

2010                        Outstanding Commitment to Service, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc, Alpha Delta Chapter

2009                        Charles U. Smith Junior Faculty Achievement Award, Association of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Current Service

Since 2020             Editorial Board: Journal of African Cultural Studies

Since 2019             Editorial Board: Global Hip Hop Studies (Journal)

Since 2018             Board of Trustees: Diaspora Council of Tanzanians in America

Since 2016             Mentor: College of Mentors, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)

Since 2017             Diaspora Affairs Committee: African Studies Association of Africa

Since 2016             Editorial Board: College Language Association Journal