W. F. Santiago-Valles, Ph.D.
Project Director
W. F. Santiago-Valles, Ph. D., Associate Professor in Africana Studies at Western Michigan University [WMU], Kalamazoo, has research interests and teaching responsibilities in social movements and popular cultures in the African Diaspora, the consequences of globalization, and praxis research methods. As Director of the Race & Ethnic Relations Institute at WMU Dr. Santiago-Valles pioneered a research program for the Institute that emphasized the global context for power inequities represented as race/ethnicity. The research methods faculty was encouraged to coordinate course offerings, and supported in the creation of new courses. Area studies faculty was supported in the creation of a field trip that evolved into a curriculum development project that attracted graduate students, school teachers and faculty interested in developing course units on the consequences of globalization [that could compare West Africa and the US Midwest]. This research team, directed by Dr. Santiago-Valles, received external funding support for an initial field trip to collect artifacts used in the development of lesson plans. These materials were complemented by a web site and a set of curriculum boxes also created by the research team members. Dr. Santiago-Valles’ Curriculum Artifact Box (Box #3) is part of an undergraduate Non-Western Worlds course, and it includes materials on consequences of globalization such as migration and the adaptation(s) of problem solving strategies [such as Islam] to new contexts. These issues connecting West Africa and the US Midwest are the ones that he could speak on, especially on their representation in popular culture and by the authors excluded from the official curriculum. Both in Africana Studies and Global Studies he teaches courses about political economy, cultural history and research procedures. He is directing another statewide Africana Studies faculty team examining the lessons learned from the Detroit urban rebellion of 1967 in order to develop appropriate curriculum content. Dr. Santiago-Valles has traveled in Africa, Europe and the Americas since the 1970s as a foreign correspondent, apprentice craftsman, teacher, guest lecturer, and researcher. Please contact him at santiago.valles@wmich.edu
Contact: W.F. Santiago-Valles, Ph. D. , santiago.valles@wmich.eduPersonal Web Page
Office Address: Africana Studies, Western Michigan University , 1903 W. Michigan Avenue, Kalamazoo , MI 49008-5311
Office Telephone: 269-387-2561 (office phone), 269-553-6307 (fax) Counterpart from Senegal: Ibrahima Thioub