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Nana Hemaa Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum

Professor
Office
JH Julian Hall 53
  • 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

MUS 139.001 African Drumming And Dance Ensemble

MUS 153.001 Black Music I

MUS 489.001 Black Music: Africa to Afrofuturism

MUS 356.001 Black Music: From Africa to Afrofuturism

MUS 239.001 Ensemble (African Drumming And Dance)

MUS 439.001 Ensemble: African Drumming And Dance

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
Walking with My Ancestors
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
“What does Emancipation Day Mean to Us?” Juneteenth Celebration, Bloomington, IL (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
Walking with My Ancestors
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
Communing with Douglass, Lincoln, and Tubman
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
July 4 2020
End of Semester Performance
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
SOM. November 8 2020
Walking with My Ancestors
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
Walking with My Ancestors: Teaching Black History
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
University of Missouri. July 20 2020

Book, Authored

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: Vulnerability in the Ethnography of Performance, University of Rochester Press
Entering the Lives of Others: Entangled Intimacies, Trauma, and Performance
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Intimate Entanglements in the Ethnography of Performance: Race, Gender, Vulnerability, University of Rochester Press, Boydell and Brewer

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

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