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Faculty

Ofosuwa Abiola, Ph.D. (She/Her/Hers)

Associate Professor, African History (dance history, cultural history of Africa)

ofosuwa.abiola@Howard.edu
(202) 806-6218
CV

Department/Office

  • Theatre Arts

School/College

  • College of Fine Arts

Additional Positions

  • Associate Professor of Africana Dance History
    Theatre Arts

Biography

WEBSITE: https://www.oabiola.org/         

 

BIOGRAPHY 

ACADEMIA

Dr. Ofosuwa M. Abiola is an Associate Professor of Africana Dance History, in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. She served in numerous administrative positions at Howard, including the inaugural Associate Dean of Research and Creative Endeavors, interim Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts, Coordinator of the Dance program, Coordinator of the Department of Theatre Arts Honors Program, and coordinator of the Theatre Arts Minor program. Abiola received her PhD in African History from Howard University with a specialization in the history of African and African Diaspora (Africana) dance and culture. Abiola's research interests include the history of traditional dance in Africa; research paradigms in Africana dance history; the history of the African dance aesthetic; digital humanities; and the intersection of history, dance, and identity. 

​Abiola has published four books. Her latest publication, Afrikinesis: A Paradigm for Research on African and African Diaspora Dance, won the 2024 Ruth Lovell Murray Honorable Mention book award from the National Dance Education Organization. Additional publications include, Fire Under My Feet: History, Race & Agency in African Diaspora Dance; History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance;  and an introductory textbook for undergraduate students, Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa. Her digital publications include, a short-form documentary visual companion for the book History Dances titled, History Dances: African Dance Systems as Methodologies; Other projects are works in progress and include the monographs, Unwitting Witnesses, Pivotal Moments, and the Invisible Field of African Dance History; Voiceless Shouts: Danced Conversations on Women, Identity, and Activism in Africa and her Diaspora; and an International peer-reviewed digital interdisciplinary journal titled, At the Cutting Edge. 

Abiola received numerous grants, awards and fellowships from national and international institutions including: the Outstanding Dance Education Researcher Award from the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), the Mary Ellen Multi-Country Research Award from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (NEH), a National Trust for Historic Preservation grant, a CAORC fellowship, US Department of Education grant, US Department of State grant, Howard University’s Deans Cabinet Award, an Outstanding Student Advisement Award (HU Office of Research Development), Howard University Research Grant, an Outstanding Assistant Professor Award and the George H. Bennett Fellowship, among others. In addition to the NEH fellowship, Abiola was also awarded a $100,000 grant from NEH to establish an Africana Theatre and Dance Collection in Howard University's historic Founder's Library. During her summer tenure as Archivist for the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, Abiola established their first archival system.

​Abiola was invited to Recife, Brazil, by the U.S. State Department to mount her African dance ballet, RITES, and to be a speaker in the International Cultural Summit in Brazil, hosted by a joint venture of the U.S. Consulate in Brazil and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, to facilitate the launch of the Smithsonian's first International Engagement Program. 

She was featured on ABC's Good Morning Washington, in the Afro-American Newspaper, and on the American Historical Association's (AHA) Perspectives on History as a Spotlight Scholar among others. 

​Dr. Abiola founded and served as Director of the international conference, The Nankama African Dance Conference, where participants and presenters from Africa, the African Diaspora, Europe, the US, and representatives from the US State Department attended.

For more information visit the website: https://www.oabiola.org/

**The video link below is a short-form documentary that serves as a visual and contextual aid for the book History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional African Dance. The links beneath it provide more information about Abiola's four book publications.

VIDEO:

History Dances: African Dance Systems as Methodologies  

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS:

Afrikniesis: A Paradigm for Research on African and African Diaspora Dance

History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional African Dance

Fire Under My Feet: History, Race and Agency in African Diaspora Dance

Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa

 

BEFORE ACADEMIA

Prior to her academic career, Abiola garnered three decades of performance and choreography experience. When Abiola founded the traditional African dance company, Suwabi African Ballet, in Newport News, VA, she specialized in African dance ballets. She served as Artistic Director for 15 years until she relocated to Washington, DC to peruse her Ph.D. at Howard University. During her tenure as Artistic Director, in addition to 1000+ performances, presentations, and choreographic works, Abiola researched, wrote, directed, choreographed, and produced historical African dance ballets. Abiola's artistic awards include: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) Master Folk Artist Award, SeVAA Excellence in the Arts Award, VMEA Outstanding Contribution to Music Award, among others.

Abiola performed nationally and internationally. She received numerous grants and awards, and was consistently featured on radio and TV broadcast stations including PBS, NBC, CBS, and WHRO. 

Education & Expertise

Education

History (region: Africa; concentration: dance & performance history)

Ph.D.
Howard University
2016

Major: Cultural Studies, Minors: Dance, History

B.I.S. (Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies)
Virginia State University
2010

Expertise

History of African and African Diaspora Dance and Culture

Abiola's research interests include the history of traditional dance in Africa; research paradigms in Africana dance history; the history of the African dance aesthetic; and the intersection of history, dance, identity and activism. Her research also seeks to underscore Africana dance narratives and their capacity to immerse all who engage them in the worldview of peoples of African descent, and their global collective experiences.

Academics

Academics

Dance History I (WAC): Africa, Antiquity to the 20th Century

WAC - Writing Across the Curriculum course.

Dance History II: (WRTG) Engaging the African Diaspora, 1600 to Present

WRTG - Writing Intensive course.

Dance History I (WAC): World Dance

WAC - Writing Across the Curriculum course.

Performance and Identity

I created this course to enhance students' analytical skills and to provide a deeper engagement with the infinite ways in which the arts impact society.

Theatre History I (WAC): World Theatre to the 18th Century

Honors Thesis I

Honors Thesis II

Honors Directed Research I

Honors Directed Research II

Arts, Libraries, and Archives

I created this course to provide performance students with archival skills and methodologies for the arts fields.

Research Methods in Dance, Theatre, and Performance

I created this course to further enhance performance students' skills in research methods.

African History I

Introduction to Theatre

African Dance I

African Dance II

African Dance III

African Dance Performance Workshop

Research

Research

Specialty

African and African Diaspora (Africana) dance and cultural history; digital humanities; research paradigms in Africana dance, the intersection of history, dance, identity, and activism

Funding

My research has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH); the National Trust for Historic Preservation; the U.S. State Department; the U.S. Department of Education; the National Park Service (NPS); the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH); The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), Howard University's Office of Research Development; The Center for African Studies; and diverse cultural and humanities academic and non-academic institutes and agencies.

Accomplishments

Accomplishments

Ruth Lovell Murray Honorable Mention Book Award, National Dance Education Organization (NDEO)

My short-form monograph, Afrikinesis: A Paradigm for Research on African and African Diaspora Dance, won the Ruth Lovell Murray Honorable Mention book award, 2024. 

Awarded a National Trust for Historic Preservation Grant, $150,000.00.

Awarded this grant to illuminate the Black Modernist design of Ira Aldridge Theatre and to celebrate the historic contributions of Black architects.

Awarded the Outstanding Dance Education Researcher Award, 2022

National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). Awarded for my contributions to African and African Diaspora dance history research.

Appointed Associate Dean of Research and Creative Endeavors, 2022

Appointed the inaugural Associate Dean of Research and Creative Endeavors for the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts. Howard University is the first HBCU to contain this position.

Deans Cabinet Award, 2022

Awarded the Deans Cabinet Award. 

Invited Panelist, Atlantic Council High-Level International Summit, 2021

Invited to be a panelist in The Atlantic Council, Africa Center, High-Level International Summit on the African Creative and Cultural Industries. The summit was hosted by Ambassador Rama Yade. Panel speakers included Nana Addo-Akufo (President of Ghana), Cyril Ramaphosa (President of South Africa), Felix Tshisekedi (President of Democratic Republic of the Congo), and other high-level American and international officials. I spoke about the benefit of investing in dance in the African Diaspora.

Appointed Interim Chairperson, Department of Theatre Arts, 2020-2022

Appointed interim chair for the Department of Theatre Arts.

Awarded a $15,000.00 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2021

Awarded this NEH fellowship to continue research on my next book.

Awarded an $11,000.00 Fellowship from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), 2020

Awarded the Council of American Overseas Research Centers Fellowship to conduct research in Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa, for my monograph, Unwitting Witnesses: Unearthing Narratives of African Dance in Pre-Colonial Logs.

Top-Ranked Research Award, $1,000.00, 2020

Awarded the Mary Ellen Lane Multi-Country Travel Grant for writing the top research proposal.

Invited Speaker, Smithsonian's International Engagement Summit, 2020

Invited to be a speaker in the International Cultural Summit in Brazil, hosted by a joint venture of the U.S. Consulate in Brazil and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, to facilitate the launch of the Smithsonian's first International Engagement Program. 

U.S. Department of State Arts Envoy, Recife, Brazil, 2020

Invited to Recife, Brazil, by the U.S. State Department to mount my African dance ballet, RITES, performed by 5 dance artists in the Dance program at Howard, and teach African dance workshops while there.

Awarded a $99, 948.00 Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2018

Was awarded an NEH grant to establish an Africana Theatre and Dance Collection in Founders Library.

Award, Outstanding Assistant Professor, 2018

This award acknowledges the accomplishments of Assistant Professors in the College of Arts and Sciences in the areas of teaching, research, and service.

Award, Outstanding Faculty Advisor, 2018

This award acknowledges the professor's advising and guidance of students who won the Most Outstanding Presentation in Howard University's Research Week. 

Grant, $3,000.00, Department of Education/Center for African Studies, 2019

Awarded a $3,000.00 grant from the Department of Education through the Center for African Studies to supprt the Nankama African Dance Conference. I proposed the conference to the Theatre Arts Department and serve as director.

Awarded the Howard University Research Grant, $10,000.00, 2017

Awarded this grant to travel to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York to conduct research to complete my book, For Every Thought There's A Dance: The History of African American Dance.  

Frederick Douglass Doctoral Fellowship, 2011-2016

I was awarded this five-year fellowship to pursue my Ph.D. in History at Howard University.

Mayor's Special Commendation, District of Columbia Archives, 2012

Office of the Mayor, Washington, D.C.

Special Commendation, District of Columbia Archives, 2012

Special Commendation, Public History Lecture Series, District of Columbia Archives, Washington, D.C.

J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship, 2010

Fulbright award to study Gnawa dance and music in Morocco, North Africa.

Award, Master Folk Artist, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2005

Was bestowed the title "Master Folk Artist" by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Award, Outstanding Contribution to Music, 2005

The Virginia Music Educators’ Association.

Main Stay Award, 2000

For a performance above and beyond expected. Department of the Navy, Pentagon, Arlington, VA. Newport News, VA branch.

Related Articles

Afrikinesis: A Paradigm for Research on African and African Diaspora Dance

Afrikinesis: A Paradigm for Research on African and African Diaspora Dance provides scholars and non-specialists alike, with a roadmap for effectively conducting culturally aware, historically relevant research on African dance and on any dance style that contains African elements. The book explains why Western research paradigms are inadequate for research on Africana dance. It exposes the value of utilizing an appropriate research paradigm that offers researchers a broader perspective, and a transparent, unfettered process for analysis in under-researched topics such as African and African diaspora dance styles.

Afrikinesis: A Paradigm for Research on African and African Diaspora Dance

Fire Under My Feet: History, Race & Agency in African Diaspora Dance (Monograph)

Fire Under My Feet: History, Race & Agency in African Diaspora Dance, seeks to expose the diverse, significant, and often under-researched historical and developmental phenomena revealed by studies in the dance systems of the African Diaspora. This work showcases a blend of scholars, dance practitioners, and interdisciplinarity, and engages the relationship between African diaspora dance and the fields of history, performance studies, religion, identity and Black agency. In Fire Under My Feet, written documentation and diverse methodologies are buttressed by the experiences of those whose lives are built around the practice of African diaspora dance. Replete with original perspectives, this book makes a significant contribution to dance and African diaspora scholarship simultaneously. Most important, it highlights the work of researchers from Ecuador, India, Puerto Rico, the United States, and the United Kingdom, and it exposes under-researched and omitted voices of the African diaspora dance world of the aforesaid locations and Puerto Rico, Columbia, and Trinidad as well.

https://www.routledge.com/Fire-Under-My-Feet-History-Race-and-Agency-in…

Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa (Textbook)

Embedded within the dances of Africa are repositories of historical narratives, invaluable insights on the mindset of ancient and contemporary peoples, and revelations and budding hints of developing cultural phenomena. Historical Perspectives on Dance in Africa introduces students, scholars, and the general public to previously under-researched African dances and their meanings, and the cultural history that gave birth to them.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1733357106?pf_rd_r=B88JHXX1MG8DC75Z2M… 

History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance (Monograph)

The field of history is founded on the interrogation of written documents from the past. However, culture is the centre of life in Africa. As a result, in the past – and to a degree in the present – the process for documenting events in Africa was not written, it was performed. History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance, argues that a wealth of information is housed within traditional Mandinka dance, and consequently, the dances can be used as an African derived primary source for writing African history. History Dances highlights the overall value of studying Mandinka dance history specifically, and African dance history generally, and it addresses the issue of scarcity with regard to primary sources for writing African history.

https://www.routledge.com/History-Dances-Chronicling-the-History-of-Tra…

Editor-in-Chief: Evoke: A Historical, Theoretical, and Cultural Analysis of Africana Dance and Theatre (Journal)

Evoke: A Historical, Theoretical, and Cultural Analysis of Africana Dance and Theatre is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed digital journal that fosters research, critical analysis, and vigorous discourse, on Africana dance, acting, and filmmaking. Evoke seeks to bring Africana performing arts into scholarly discussions thereby documenting, preserving, and providing exposure to under-researched narratives in Africana vernacular and professional performing arts. Accordingly, Evoke also provides a venue for scholars of African, African American, and African Diaspora dance, theatre, and film. 

http://dh.howard.edu/evoke/

Howard Fine Arts Professor Shows How African Dance Chronicled History | Afro American Newspaper

The Afro American Newspaper, sometimes referred to as simply, The Afro, was founded in 1892 and is part of a small group of long established  African American newspapers in the United States. The Afro ran an article on the publication of Dr. Abiola's book, History Dances: Chronicling the History of Traditional Mandinka Dance.

https://afro.com/howard-fine-arts-professor-shows-how-african-dance-chr…