ANIKA

Anika Wilson, PhD, is the current chair of the Department African and African Diaspora Studies at UW-Milwaukee. Dr. Wilson received her doctorate in Folklore and Folklife Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and specialize in the gender, informal narrative, and spirituality in southern Africa. Her book Folklore, Gender, and AIDS in Malawi: No Secret Under the Sun (2013) was awarded the Elli Kongas Maranda Award for feminist scholarship in folklore in 2014. She currently teaches courses in African cultures and societies, religion, and gender relations. Dr. Wilson’s current projects involve the analysis of legends and beliefs related to sacred sites central and southern Africa as they are linked to ideas about spirituality, identity, and ecology in as well as another project examining gendered narratives in divorce court transcripts from Malawi. She also serves on the AFS Cultural Diversity Committee for the last three years and has been the co-chair for the last two years.