Sundiata Cha-Jua, Associate Professor
Contact
African American Studies and History
1201 W. Nevada
217.333.7781
schajua@illinois.edu
Biography
Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua is an Associate Professor in the Department of History, from which he earned a Ph.D. in 1993, and in African American Studies. He previously taught in the History department and directed the Black Studies Program at the University of Missouri at Columbia, and taught history at Pennsylvania State University and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Dr. Cha-Jua received Advanced Certificates in Black Studies from Northeastern University in 1992 and from the National Council for Black Studies, Director’s Institute in 1992.
He is a member of several professional associations, including the Association for the Study of Afro-American Life & History, the National Council for Black Studies (National Board member), and the Organization of American Historians. His research interests include: African American Community Formation, Black Radicalism and Nationalism, Race and Racism, Historical Materialism, and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy. Dr. Cha-Jua is the author of America's First Black Town, Brooklyn, Illinois, 1830-1915, (University of Illinois Press, 2000) and several scholarly articles in the Black Scholar, Journal of American History, Journal of Black Studies, Nature, Society & Thought, and Souls, among others journals.