2010–12—Lynda Day

Lynda Day

As a researcher, teacher, college citizen, and public intellectual, she works to communicate a broader vision of women in the African diaspora to diverse audiences. Her second book, Gender and Power, the Women Chiefs of Sierra Leone, the Last Two Hundred Years, analyzes women political leaders in Sierra Leone, discussing the configuration of gendered political authority in the history of the region.

She served as the Endowed Chair of the WGST program from fall 2010 through spring 2012. In that role she taught courses and organized programs exploring African feminist theory and issues facing African and African American women nationally and trans-nationally, including war and peace-building in Africa, immigration, political leadership, and media representations.

Some of the highlights of her tenure as Endowed Chair include:

• An exhibit of paintings and multi-media artwork by and about African women,  co-sponsored with the Sauti Yetu Center for African Women and Families.
• A symposium discussing war and peace-building in Sierra Leone and Liberia, which included a first person narrative by a Sierra Leonean war survivor.
• A presentation by Professor Yaba Blay, on “Bleaching and the Aesthetics of Skin Color” to a packed house of students eager to discuss self-identity and media/community representations of black women’s hair and body.
• A Black Women’s Film Series, which explored media representations of black women and the work of women leaders.
• A presentation by Akosua A. Ampofo, of Ghana’s Gender Studies Institute on popular Ghanaian music videos.
• A student luncheon with a panel of prominent Brooklyn women political activists.

She has been active in the Women and Gender Studies Program at Brooklyn College since 1992, serving on the Women’s Studies Program Steering Committee, search committees, a Self-Study Committee, and WGST Program and Women’s Center strategic planning groups.