HWS News
22 January 2025 Dahouda Publishes on African Diaspora in America
Professor Kanaté Dahouda authors a book chapter in a new anthology featuring 15 prominent scholars in the field of African Diaspora Studies.
Associate Professor of French, Francophone and Italian Studies Kanaté Dahouda’s scholarship was recently published in a book of collected works titled, “Regards africains sur la diaspora noire.’’ The English translation of the title is, “African Perceptions on the Black Diaspora.”
Published in Canada by Les Éditions du Channel, the book explores key questions about African perspectives on the historical and contemporary experiences of Africans who have left the "motherland.” The book also examines how the practice of diaspora shapes memory and identity. African Perceptions on the Black Diaspora investigates these themes through the insights of 15 prominent scholars in African Diaspora Studies.
Dahouda contributed a chapter titled, “La diaspora africaine à l’épreuve de l’Amérique dans Hawa. Court métrage d’Aimé Arzouma Kompaoré, cinéaste francophone,” or “The African Diaspora Experience in America in the short film “Hawa”, by Aimé Arzouma Kompaoré, a Francophone filmmaker.” His piece reflects on the relationships between Africa and its diaspora, and underscores ways in which significant number of African exiles strive to overcome “the crippling sorrow of estrangement” (Said, 2002 173) in their problematic quest to achieving the American Dream.
Dahouda holds a Ph.D. in Francophone comparative literatures and cultures from Laval University in Quebec, Canada. As a scholar, he has co-authored and been a contributor to numerous essays and articles in scholarly journals, academic volumes, anthologies, dictionaries and reviews. He specializes in the teaching of French and Francophones studies from Quebec, the Caribbean and Africa. His research interests focus on the intersection of language, the practice of diaspora, memory, exile, violence, and identity formation from colonial period to postcolonial era.
Dahouda current serves as Chair of the Department of French, Francophone, and Italian Studies.
