Paulo S. Polanah
Assistant Professor
Joined Virginia Tech: 1995
| Bachelor's | Southern Utah University |
| Master's | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Doctorate | University of California, Santa Barbara |
CURRENT PROJECTS:
My current research focuses on examining the cultural violence involved in the introduction of Westernity into colonized and formerly colonized spaces, specifically on the elimination, defacement, and replacement of African indigenous cultures with Western ones, a process theorized by some scholars as ‘cultural genocide.’ I am interested in theorizing the introduction of Western products in Africa not only as representative of Western cultural imperatives, but as transformative agents capable of suppressing or neutralizing indigenous knowledges and practices.
CURRENT TEACHING INTERESTS:
Africana History
African Religions
Race & Film
Colonial and Post-Colonial Theory
Representations of Africana
CURRENT RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Critique of Development
African and Western Metaphysics
Globalization and African Indigenous Knowledges
RECENT AWARDS AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
Diggs Teaching Scholar Award, Virginia Tech, 2008
Department of Sociology, Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2008
PUBLICATIONS:
P. S. Polanah. 2011. "The Zenith of our National History!” National identity, colonialism, and the promotion of the Portuguese Discoveries: Portugal 1930." e-Journal Of Portuguese History, 9(2).
K. Precoda and P. S. Polanah. 2010. "In the Vortex of Modernity: Writing Blackness, blindness and insight." Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. 34(3): 31-46.
K. Precoda and P. S. Polanah. 2009. "To Discipline & Publish: Scottsboro and narratives of delinquency." Critical Criminology Vol. 17 (3): 145-158.
P. S. Polanah. 2008. "An Imperial Mystique: Colonial discourse and national identity in
Portugal, 1930-1945.” Portuguese Studies Review, Vol. 16 (1): 61-86.
P. S. Polanah. 2007. "Avatar of Colonialism: Africa and the discourse of development"
International Journal of Africana Studies, Vol. 13 (2): 21-37.