Wendy Wilson-Fall

Wendy Wilson-Fall grew up in Washington, D.C. in the Manor Park/Takoma area. She attended public schools in Washington, D.C. and received her B.A. from Howard University, where she majored in Fine Arts and worked with leading artists and printmakers. Wilson-Fall conducted field research in Niger and in the greater Sahel region and wrote her Ph.D. on communities there, eventually learning more than 6 languages. She is a social anthropologist who currently serves as Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Lafayette College. Formerly a Director of the West African Research Center in Dakar, Senegal (1999-2004), she is on the boards of The Africa Network and ARED (Associates for Research and Education in Development), an organization that supports literacy in West African languages. Her research and writing explore themes of exclusivity, inclusion, marginalization, and cultural identities in the context of small farmers and livestock managers in West Africa. She has also written about memory and identity among African Americans. Her published works include Memories of Madagascar and Slavery in the Black Atlantic (Ohio University Press) and Diourbel Region: The Family, Local Institutions, and Education (Drylands Research, DFID, United Kingdom). Dr. Wilson has benefitted from grants from the Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as research support from Lafayette College. She has lived in several West African countries and spends her time between her homes in Easton, Pennsylvania and Dakar, Senegal.