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Faculty
Faculty

Jo Von M. McCalester, PhD (She/Her/Hers)

Faculty

jovon.mccalester@howard.edu

Department/Office

  • Political Science

School/College

  • College of Arts & Sciences

Additional Positions

  • Faculty
    Afro American Studies

Biography

Jo Von McCalester is a lecturer in the Political Science Department and Research Associate and instructor for the John and Eula Mae Cleveland Endowed Chair in the Afro American Studies Department at Howard University. Her research interests include Social and Public Policy, and Intersectionality. More specifically, her work focuses on how interconnecting power structures directly affect the lives of marginalized groups, namely women and children. A double alum of Howard University, she received her BA in Political Science in 2005, and her PhD in Political Science in 2015. She also holds a Master’s in African American and African Studies from the Ohio State University as well. Recently, she served as associate editor for A Life of the Mind, Essays in Honor of Andrew Billingsley, PhD, an edited volume honoring the contributions of sociologist and former Howard University Provost and Morgan State University president, Andrew Billingsley, PhD.

Education & Expertise

Education

BA


Howard University
2005

MA


Ohio State University
2008

PhD


Howard University
2015

Academics

Academics

POLS 001

Introduction to Political Science

This course is the basis for understanding the background, principles, institutions, and functions of government through the academic lens of political science. You should by the end of the course, understand the context of your own personal and political decisions. You should then be able to apply a more critical eye and some form of research methodology to conclusions made while observing daily political occurrences.

POLS 007

Introduction to Black Politics

AFRO 005

Introduction to Afro American Studies I

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

▪ Identify and discuss the broad contours and some key specifics of the African

intellectual tradition and genealogy, from antiquity to the 1800’s;

▪ Utilize techniques explicitly associated with the academic discipline of Africana Studies to analyze texts, practices, and narratives.

▪ Delineate the argument (or claim) made in the text and whether the author evidence supports their stated objectives.

▪ Synthesize information and make a direct connect between the thesis and the evidence presented in the readings

AFRO 006

Introduction to Afro American Studies II

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

▪ Identify and discuss the broad contours and some key specifics of the African intellectual tradition and genealogy, from Reconstruction to the Nadir.

▪ Utilize techniques explicitly associated with the academic discipline of Africana Studies to analyze texts, practices, and narratives.

▪ Synthesize information and make a direct connect between the thesis and the evidence presented in the readings.

▪ Delineate the argument (or claim) made in the text and whether the author evidence supports their stated objectives.

AFRO 186

Black Women in America II

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

▪ Discuss the broad contours of the genealogy of the African intellectual tradition and how it shows up each of the assigned readings;

▪ Synthesize information and make a direct connect between the thesis and the evidence presented in the readings.

▪ Utilize techniques explicitly associated with the academic discipline of Africana Studies to analyze texts, practices and narratives; and

▪ Relate a working knowledge of historical and theoretical Africana approaches to Black Women’s Studies.

▪ Delineate the argument (or claim) made in the text and whether the author evidence supports their stated objectives.