Since 2007 I have held full time hybrid teaching/administrative/managerial positions as on-site faculty and program director of annual fall semester study abroad programs in Africa. I began at Antioch University, Ohio, directing their Arts and Culture in Mali program based in Bamako. I subsequently founded their Arts and Culture in West Africa program based in Kankan, Guinea, and more recently I worked for Carleton College, Minnesota, as founding faculty director of their Carleton Global Engagement Programs in Buea, Dschang, and Foumban, Cameroon. In fall 2017, I inaugurated the Globalization and Sustainable Development in Cameroon (GSDC) program at Carleton, designed to run simultaneously with the Arts Apprenticeship in Cameroon program.
My experience as a student and performer of Mande music provides the practical grounding for research on indigenous, local engagement with tradition and modernity in an increasingly globalized world. Over the last 20 years I have developed an extensive international network of contacts, including visual and performing artists and artisans who personify the unique bridging of historical and contemporary cultural elements so prevalent in urban West and Central Africa today. My current projects in Cameroon include researching the musical practices of the royal court of the Bamoun people of Foumban, collaborating on the creation of the Conservatoire Royale des Arts Bamoun, and co-authoring an article on visual symbolism and cultural heritage in the biennial Nguon festival parade.