The Wayne State University School of Library and Information Science is pleased to welcome Dr. Kafi D. Kumasi as an assistant professor, effective Fall 2009. Dr. Kumasi's teaching and research interests center on school library media issues, particularly focused on the social and cultural approaches to adolescent literacy. In addition to teaching in the school library media concentration, Dr. Kumasi will be instrumental in bringing the School's planned certificate in Urban Librarianship to fruition.

Dr. Kumasi holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University, an MLIS from Wayne State University, and a BS in Education from the University of Michigan.

At Indiana University, Dr. Kumasi was a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Fellow through a partnership between the School of Education and the School of Library and Information Science. Her dissertation research, "Seeing White in Black: Examining Racial Identity Among African American Adolescents Through a Culturally Centered Book Club," was a sociolinguistic ethnographic study that examined racial identity among thirteen African American middle and high school students inside a book club that centered on exploring Black culture and experiences through young adult novels.

Dr. Kumasi was also the principal investigator on a research project within the Indiana School of Library and Information Science. Stories We Tell: Culture, Race, and Youth Services in the LIS Curriculum, details her qualitative pilot study exploring how a group of pre-service librarians think about multicultural education as it relates to their role serving ethnically diverse youth in library settings.

Dr. Kumasi also received an IMLS-funded scholarship to obtain her MLIS at Wayne State, while working as a school media specialist, through a partnership between the former Library and Information Science Program and the Detroit Public Schools. Prior to entering graduate school, she was a high school English teacher at Southeastern High School of Technology in Detroit.

Dr. Kumasi can be reached at ak4901@wayne.edu. She is teaching LIS 7850: Issues in Librarianship: Socio-Cultural Competencies for Urban Library and Information Professionals and LIS 7320: The Media Specialist as Teacher and Instructional Consultant.