Morgan McClain-McKinney Limo earned the College of LAS Outstanding Young Alumni Award for her development work in Africa

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Dr. Bala Saho, CAS MA, 2007 and Former Wolof Instructor; PhD in African History, 2012, Michigan State University

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Dr. Saho is Assistant Professor of African History at the University of Oklahoma. He received his MA in African Studies from the Center in 2007 and a PhD in African History from Michigan State University. He is an historian of nineteenth- and twentieth-centuries West Africa (religious, legal, cultural, and social, women and gender). His publications include Contours of Change: Muslim Courts, Women, and Islamic Society in Colonial Bathurst, the Gambia, 1900-1965, Michigan State University Press, 2018; “Challenges and Constraints: Forced Marriage as a Form ‘Traditional’ Practice in the Gambia.” in Marriage By Force?: Contestation Over Consent and Coercion in Africa, 178-198, edited by Annie Buntung, Benjamin N. Lawrence, and Richard Roberts, Athens: Ohio University Press, 2016; “Ritualizing and Domesticating Space: Kaneleng Women Coping with Childlessness in the Gambia,” Mande Studies Journal, 14, 12 (2014): 99– 126;Islam and Personhood in the Senegambia: Life and Times of Seringe Mass Kah,1827– 1936,” African Studies Quarterly, Volume 12, Issue 4; “Masking for Money: The Commodification of Kankurang and Simba Mask Performances in Urban Gambia,” in Wari Matters, Germany, 2005. Dr. Saho previously worked in The Gambia as Director General of the National Centre for Arts and Culture and Director of the Oral History Archive.

 

Dr Nicole Anderson Cobb, PhD, African History, 2007 and CAS FLAS Alumna

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Nicole Anderson-Cobb, Ph.D., is a Chicago native who grew up on Chicago’s southeast side in the Calumet Heights community. Dr. Anderson-Cobb earned a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1995), a Master’s degree in History (1998), and Doctorate of Philosophy in History (Concentrations on Africa, Comparative Islam, Gender, & Media) from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2007). As a university professor, Dr. Anderson-Cobb taught Africana Studies and Film/Media Studies at Occidental College (CA), Augustana College (IL), Jacksonville University (FL), and Roosevelt University (IL) from 2004-2010.

In 2013, Dr. Anderson-Cobb returned to the classroom as a visiting lecturer at the UIUC Department of African American Studies teaching Hate Crimes 410 for 2013-2015.

Dr. Anderson-Cobb is also an award-winning playwright and founder of Samaritan Road Productions (SRP).  SRP is an umbrella non-profit entity for plays, courses, and workshops that seek to promote reflection, dialogue, conflict resolution, and personal, group and community transformation. Dr. Anderson-Cobb’s plays include Black Reign (2010), Still Waters( 2011),  Tangled (2012), Campus Jihad( 2015), and GunPlay(s) Theatre Competition (2013-Present, currently being produced at the Station Theatre in Urbana, Illinois). These projects have garnered attention from local, regional, and national media outlets including The Story with Dick Gordon (APM), American Radio Works, WGLT (Bloomington IL), WBEZ (Chicago), The Chicago Defender, The Reader (Chicago), The Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Illini, The News Gazette (Central Illinois) The Lutheran Magazine, For Harriet: Celebrating The Fullness of Black Womanhood, The Salt Collective (National Blog) among other publications.

Because of Dr. Anderson-Cobb’s ongoing commitment to gun violence prevention, she was recruited by the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) and served as the Outreach Coordinator for the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) for the 2012-2013 year. Dr. Anderson Cobb has also served as a City of Urbana IDOT Traffic Stop Data Task Force Member for the 2014-2015 year examining racial disparities in local traffic stops. For more information, click on  http://urbanaillinois.us/boards/idot-traffic-stop-data-task-force

During the 2015-2016 academic year, Dr. Anderson-Cobb was a UIUC Specialized Journalism Fellow in the UIUC Department of Journalism where she earned a second Master’s degree in Journalism while working on specialized journalism projects.

In 2016-2017, Dr. Anderson-Cobb worked as a media researcher in the Department of Journalism. She then decided to wed her interest in public service with investigative journalism training to serve at the Constituent Services Staffer for State Representative Carol Ammons providing assistance and advocacy for constituents and organizations across the 103rd District. Dr. Anderson-Cobb served as the Assistant Manager for the Gunplay(s) Theatre Series at The Station Theatre (Urbana, IL) for a year-long exploration of 10 plays examining gun violence in American communities as well as President of the Canaan Academy Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) in Urbana Illinois. In addition, she is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated (Champaign, IL).

Finally, Dr. Anderson-Cobb is a wife and mother of a 5-year-old daughter. In her free time, she enjoys reading, travel, dance, visiting museums and cultural attractions, and spending time with family and extended family.