Emily W. Ibrahim
Emily Williamson Ibrahim is an assistant professor in the department of anthropology at Kenyon College. Her current research focuses on a creative form of communication called "folded speech" in the Hausa language that offer a lens through which to understand how people manage intersubjective uncertainty among “zongos,” the name used to describe predominantly Muslim urban settlements in Ghana, West Africa. Emily holds a PhD in anthropology from Boston University (BU), a Master of Science in Architectural Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Virginia (UVA), and an undergraduate degree in Art History from Colby College. Emily has also worked as an architect in Washington, DC, collaborated on cultural heritage projects in Ghana, Peru, and Haiti, has taught anthropology at Brandeis University, landscape architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and is a co-founder of the nonprofit organization called the "Zongo Story Project" (www.zongostoryproject.com) in which she works with students in Ghana to write, illustrate, and tell stories that are meaningful to them. In 2016, their book “Gizo-Gizo: A Tale from the Zongo Lagoon”won the African Studies Association’s Africana Book Award for the best children’s book. For more about her work, please see: www.emilywilliamsonibrfahim.com.
John Schaidler
Editor John Schaidler has also worked extensively on children’s literacy projects with Ghanaian students, teachers, community leaders and elders. Building on previous work at his children’s schools in Minneapolis and New York City, John spent the summers of 2012 and 2013 in the remote village of Humjibre, in Ghana’s Western District. There, working with local NGO the Ghana Health and Education Initiative (GHEI) and the local community, John introduced programs and concepts designed to foster a culture of reading for pleasure in elementary students and their caregivers.