Dr. Oduro-Opuni received her Ph.D. in Comparative Culture and Language and an African Studies Certificate from Arizona State University. She earned her M.A. in German from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and her B.A. in Media and Communication Sciences from the Universität Hamburg in Germany, where she was born and raised. In addition to German and English, she also speaks Twi. She is affiliated faculty with the Department of Africana Studies. Her research focuses on Black German studies and includes intersectional discussions on transnationalism, colonialism, migration, minoritized cultures, and multiculturalism. She engages German contexts by drawing on approaches rooted in Black thought and theories as well as postcolonial studies. In her current project, she explores 18th and early 19th century German-language discourses that articulate a nuanced critique of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade and are indicative of abolitionist currents. Dr. Oduro-Opuni serves as a co-chair for the German Studies Association (GSA) Black Diaspora Studies Network. She has published an article titled "German Abolitionism: Kotzebue and the Transnational Debate on Slavery" in a special issue of the Journal of Transnational American Studies on "Transnational Black Politics and Resistance: From Enslavement to Obama." In addition, Dr. Oduro-Opuni has a publication in the Goethe Yearbook volume on (New) Directions in 18th century German Studies called "Lessing and Kotzebue: A Black Studies Approach to Reading the Eighteenth Century." She has a publication in the special issue on Black German Studies in German Quarterly is called "At the Expense of Black Humanity: White Abolitionist Performativity." Her most recent publication is a co-authored chapter called "Four Black German Women: On Being Othered, Feeling Anger at Whiteness, Practicing Joy, and Finding Belonging in Solitude." She has a publication forthcoming in the German Studies Review called "Using Black Bodies in White German Abolitionist Theater" that will be published in 2025. In partnership with three colleagues, she received a Research, Innovation and Impact Challenge Grant in the amount of $49,995 for the Department of Africana Studies and the Center for Digital Humanities in Fall 2020. The grant was be used to create research opportunities for undergraduate students from underrepresented backgrounds.
oduroopuni
Currently Teaching
GER 240 – Thinkers And Dreamers: Black Pioneers In German And American History
The African diaspora is a concept that deals with the global migration (voluntary and involuntary) of African people throughout history. It addresses questions of belonging and identity abroad, stretching across time and space based on a common African origin. With this global and connected concept in mind, philosophers, theologians, playwrights, and poets writing in German and in English have grappled with questions of the African human condition for centuries. Both German and American thinkers and dreamers have been exploring the possibilities and limitations of the human intellect in action. This course takes a wide-angled look at commonalities in pioneering ideas about and by Black historical figures and scholars to explore what German-speaking and English-speaking intellectual history can tell us about the contemporary world and about the complex cultural and social history leading up to today.
The African diaspora is a concept that deals with the global migration (voluntary and involuntary) of African people throughout history. It addresses questions of belonging and identity abroad, stretching across time and space based on a common African origin. With this global and connected concept in mind, philosophers, theologians, playwrights, and poets writing in German and in English have grappled with questions of the African human condition for centuries. Both German and American thinkers and dreamers have been exploring the possibilities and limitations of the human intellect in action. This course takes a wide-angled look at commonalities in pioneering ideas about and by Black historical figures and scholars to explore what German-speaking and English-speaking intellectual history can tell us about the contemporary world and about the complex cultural and social history leading up to today.
GER 500 – Intensive Reading German for the Sciences and Humanities
Rapid acquisition of reading proficiency in German. No prior knowledge of German is necessary. Proficiency certification obtained from this course fulfills graduate foreign language requirement is some departments (consult department for information).