Nana Hemaa Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Professor
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Selected Research
Biography
I am a Professor of Music, and an award-winning and nationally-recognized playwright and performer. I teach courses in Black Music, Ethnomusicology, and I direct the ISU drumming and dance ensemble.
Current Courses
MUS 139.001 African Drumming And Dance Ensemble
MUS 154.001 Black Music II
MUS 154.002 Black Music II
MUS 239.001 Ensemble (African Drumming And Dance)
MUS 439.001 Ensemble: African Drumming And Dance
MUS 456.001 Music and Societies: Women in Music
MUS 356.001 Music And Societies:Women In Music
Teaching Interests & Areas
African American Music, Music in Captivity, Music of African Diaspora, Sensory Studies, Practice-led Research
Research Interests & Areas
Sensory Studies, Practice-led Research, Music in Slave Dungeons
PhD
Florida State University
Tallahassee, Florida
Ellen T. Blaney Book Prize in Humanities
ISU College of Arts and Sciences
2023
University Outstanding Creative Activity Award
University
2020
Grants and Contracts
Walking with My Ancestois
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
School of Music. January 2022 - April 2022
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Office of Diversity and Inclusion. January 2022 - April 2022
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Unitarian Universalist Churcn Social Justice Fund. January 2022 - April 2022
Walking with My Ancestors Black History Month Celebration
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
College of Fine Arts. January 2022 - April 2022
Performances and Exhibits
Walking with My ANCESTORS
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Cape Coast Castle. September 2024
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Cape Coast Castle. September 2024
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum. January 26 2023 - January 26 2023
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum. January 26 2023 - January 26 2023
Walking with my Ancestores
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Lewis and Clark State Colleg. February 1 2023 - February 5 2023
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Lewis and Clark State Colleg. February 1 2023 - February 5 2023
“What does Emancipation Day Mean to Us?” Juneteenth Celebration, Bloomington, IL (June 2022).
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
June 2022 - June 2022
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
June 2022 - June 2022
Challenging Our Musicianship, Expanding our musicality
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, .
School of Music. November 19 2021 - November 19 2021
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, .
School of Music. November 19 2021 - November 19 2021
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Mandi Theatre. August 7 2021 - August 7 2021
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Mandi Theatre. August 7 2021 - August 7 2021
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Virginia. March 25 2021 - March 25 2021
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Virginia. March 25 2021 - March 25 2021
Communing with Douglass, Lincoln, and Tubman
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
July 4 2020
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
July 4 2020
End of Semester Performance
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
SOM. November 8 2020
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
SOM. November 8 2020
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, .
University of Massachusetts-Amherst. March 19 2020 - March 20 2020
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, .
University of Massachusetts-Amherst. March 19 2020 - March 20 2020
Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Georgia. March 4 2020 - March 10 2020
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Georgia. March 4 2020 - March 10 2020
Walking with My Ancestors: Teaching Black History
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Missouri. July 20 2020
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Missouri. July 20 2020
Book, Authored
Walking with Asafo in Ghana
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
(2022), 10.2307/j.ctv2s2ppft, Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Walking with Asafo in Ghana: An Ethnographic Account of Kormantse Bentsir Warrior Music
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
(2022), 406 Pages, 9781648250446, University of Rochester Press (Boydell and Brewer)
Beautiful Little Girl: I Like Me!
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
(2020), Anchor Press Books, Ltd.
I Am Proud of My Ancestors: They Overcame
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
(2020), 59, Anchor Press Books, Ltd.
Book, Chapter
Entering the Lives of Others: Entangled Intimacies, Trauma, and Performance
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
(2023), Intimate Entanglements in the Ethnography of Performance: Race, Gender, Vulnerability, University of Rochester Press, Boydell and Brewer
Entering the Lives of Others: Entangled Intimacies, Trauma, and Performance.
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
(2023), Intimate Entanglements: Vulnerability in the Ethnography of Performance, University of Rochester Press
Journal Article
Ethnomusicology, Aye Kradow
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Ethnomusicology, University of Illinois Press, 65 (2), 203-220, (2021)
Walking as Fieldwork Method in Ethnomusicology
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Journal for the Society for Ethnomusicology, 65 (2), 221-258, (2021)
Other
Teacher, scholar, mother: Re-envisioning motherhood in the academy
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, M Cristina Alcalde, Allison Meyer, Cynthia J Atman, Sara M Childers, Layne Craig, Martha Kalnin Diede, Erin Graybill Ellis, Jessica Smartt Gullion, Celeste Hanna, others.
Lexington Books, (2015)
Presentations
Repositioning Dondology as An-African Centered Discipline
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Ist Symposium for Dondology, Accra, Ghana, July 31, 2025
Walking with my Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Revisiting Ancestral Knowledge Systems, Cape Coast, Ghana, January 6, 2025
Book TALK: Walking with Asafo In Ghana.
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Cape Coast Graduate Seminar, Department of Music and Dance, Cape Coast, Ghana, November, 2024
Book TALK: Walking with Asafo In Ghana.
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
University of Cape Coast, Department of Music and Dance Graduate Seminar, Accra, Ghana, November 13, 2024
Creative Fictions and Silence
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Society for Ethnomusicology, Ottawa, CA, October 21, 2023
Moving Away from Whiteness: The Musicologist of Africa as An Indigenous Scholar
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD), Accra, Ghana. Presented mine ONLINE, July 19, 2023
Moving Away in Silence
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
International Council for Music and Dance, Online, June 19, 2023
Bi Nka Bi: Finding, Celebrating, and Sustaining Our Authentic Selves as Artists, Scholars, and Instructors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Bi Nka Bi: Finding, Celebrating, and Sustaining Our Authentic Selves as Artists, Scholars, and Instructors, Normal, IL, June 1, 2023
Sankofa: Sonic Time Travel and Performative Journeyings in Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
British Forum for Ethnomusicology, Edinburgh, Scotland, April 14, 2023
Walking with Asafo: Decentering Music Research and Theory
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Midwest Chapter for Ethnomusicology, Louisville, KY (Online), April 1, 2023
Walking with Asafo in Ghana: Book Reading and Talk
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Book Reading and Talk, Normal, IL, March 8, 2023
Music and Melanin at ISU
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Black Heritage Ball, Normal, iL, February 24, 2023
Who will Sing for their Feet
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Practice-based and practice-led reseatch, Charlottesville, VA, October 8, 2021
Decolonization and Afro-Feminism
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Decolonization and Afro-Feminism, Online, November 19, 2020
Re-Envisioning African Musicology
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum.
Re-envisioning African Musicology, Online, August 4, 2020