KASC Staff

Liz MacGonagle is an African historian in the Departments of History and African & African-American Studies. In her research, she crosses historical, geographical, and theoretical boundaries to link nation, culture, and ethnicity to processes of identity formation in African and Diasporan settings.

Peter Ojiambo is an Assistant Professor of African & African-American Studies. His research focuses on African education, especially in studies on Starehe Boys Center and School of Kenya. He has published in this area and on education, democracy and development. His area of teaching is KiSwahili and he has developed a KiSwahili teaching website. Dr. Ojiambo has held teaching positions at Ohio University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Emily Riley has more than a decade of experience researching Africa, engaging with African Studies and African languages, and working on university partnerships in Africa. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology with a focus on political anthropology and gender in Senegal and West Africa. Her research and teaching interests include women and politics, identity politics, social media and social change, national identity formations, and hospitality.

Elene Cloete has more than 10 years of experience in community development programs. This included working in both rural and urban music programs and coordinating community outreach programs. Elene holds a masters degree in Culture and Development Studies and a PhD in Social Anthropology. Her research interests include youth development initiatives, social justice, and community arts programs. 

Jessica began working for KASC in Fall of 2013. She has been at KU since 2009, working with the Center for Global & International Studies. She provides administrative and general program support for KASC, CEAS, CGIS (including European Studies, South Asian and Middle East Studies.)