Biography: Magana Kabugi
Magana Kabugi Ph.D.
(Currently on leave 2023-24)
Magana J. Kabugi is an Assistant Professor of African American Literature at Fisk University and a 2023–24 Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. His teaching and research interests include 20th and 21st century African American literature and culture, Black intellectual history, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), children's literature, and comics/graphic novels. His book manuscript-in-progress, titled Turning Darkness into Day: Historically Black Colleges and the Challenge of Higher Education in the Post-Civil Rights Era, examines how Black Power intellectualism and cultural production helped to shape the ideological and curricular dimensions of HBCUs during the first two decades following desegregation.
Dr. Kabugi's research has been generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, Howard University, Emory University's James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, and Vanderbilt University, among others. His work has been featured in national publications, including HBCU Digest and Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
Education:
Ph.D. in English, Vanderbilt University
B.A. in Literature, American University
Magana J. Kabugi, Ph.D. Research & Publications
"'A New Era of Black Thought': Revisiting Gil Scott-Heron and the HBCU Protest Novel." "Rage and Resistance," special issue of The Vermont Connection, vol. 45, no. 1 (forthcoming in 2024).
"W.E.B. Du Bois, Black Atlanta, and the Brownies' Book." in The Living Legacy of African American Studies: Past, Present, and Future(s). Eds. Adria Y. Goldman, LaRonda Sanders Senu, et al. (Forthcoming from University of Georgia Press)
“A House for a King” in The New Brownies’ Book: A Love Letter to Black Families. Eds. Karida L. Brown and Charly Palmer. Chronicle Books, 2023, pp. 100–103.
(Co-editor) Heritage and Honor: The 150-Year Story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. T.L. Scott Publishing, 2022.
“Now is the Time for HBCU Think Tanks.” HBCU Digest, 28 Sept. 2020. Web. https://hbcudigest.substack.com/p/now-is-the-time-for-hbcu-think-tanks