Washington University Appoints New Leadership for Its Center for Humanities

Jean Allman, the J. H. Hexter Professor in the Humanities and chair of the department of history at Washington University in St. Louis, was named director of the Center for Humanities at the university. Dr. Allman has been a member of the faculty at Washington University since 2007 and has chaired the history department since 2009. She also is affiliated with the African and African American studies and Women, Gender and Sexuality programs at the university.

Dr. Allman is the co-author of Tongnaab: The History of a West African God (Indiana University Press, 2005) and the editor of Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress (Indiana University Press, 2004). Professor Allman holds bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Rebecca A. Wanzo, an associate professor in the Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies program at the university was appointed associate director of the Center for Humanities. Dr. Wanzo joined the faculty at the university in 2011 and serves as co-chair of the Association of Women Faculty. She previously taught at Ohio State University.

Dr. Wanzo is the author of The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling (State University of New York Press, 2009). Dr. Wanzo is a graduate of Miami University and holds a Ph.D. from Duke University.