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
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
P. S. Polanah. “The Imperial Mystique: Grammar of Exceptionalism.” Portuguese Studies Review. Forthcoming, 2008.
P. S. Polanah. “Neo-Colonial Avatar: Africa and the Discourse on Development” International Journal of Africana Studies. Forthcoming, 2008.
K. Precoda and P. S. Polanah. “To discipline & Publish: Scottsboro and Narratives of Delinquency.” Forthcoming, Critical Criminology.