Simmons College

Publishing

Dr. Elizabeth Amelia Hadley, Chair of the Department of Africana Studies at Simmons College, and author of Bessie Coleman: The Brownskin Lady Bird (Garland: 1994) which was optioned 1995-1999 by acclaimed filmmaker, Euzhan Palcy, was the recipient of a 1994-1995 Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellow in Feminism and Visual Culture at the Susan B. Anthony Center for Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Rochester; and Fulbright Professor (1989-1990) in the Departments of Literature and Drama at Kenyatta University. The multitalented Hadley, also a theatre director for more than twenty years, lectured on theatre at the Goethe Institute and directed the premiere production of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun in Nairobi, Kenya. Hadley guest directed Cheryl West's Before it Hits Home for Bates College in 1996 and has directed several local productions by Boston playwrights. She is currently co-editing a book, Makin' Whoopi: The Paradigm That is Whoopi Goldberg (Working Title), with Professor Charles I. Nero; and authoring essays, "Interpreting Musical Theatre," for the Handbook of African American Music. Mellonee Burnim and Portia Maultsby, editors, Garland; and "Black Urban Theatre," for a text titled, The Black Urban Community, Gayle T. Tate, editor. Hadley pens critical essays and articles on film, feminism, women entertainers, and pioneering aviators in a variety of publications. They are published in Africana: An Introduction and Study; Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video. Black Women in America; Multiple Voices in Feminist Film Criticism; Spirit, Space and Survival: Black Women in White Academe; and The Reader's Companion to U. S. Women's History; to name a few. Hadley is presently writing an 800 page "pivotal text," tentatively titled Blacks in TV, Films, and Video, commissioned by Routledge, anticipated completion of manuscript, September 2004.

Teaching

I have taught and directed children of all ages informally ("Upward Bound Programs," National Urban League," "Interdenominational Church Programs," and Community Programs) and formally (academic — see following) for thirty years. I have taught painting and theatre to gifted youngsters in Pittsburgh, at the institute of the late, renowned sculptor, Selma Burke, designer of the Roosevelt dime. I have taught working class University students Theatre Costume Design, and History at the University of Pittsburgh; and I have taught wealthy heirs to various corporations and political offices at Denison University. I have also taught suburban housewives interior decoration for Sears. My repertoire of courses is comprehensive because I have worked and produced in every discipline in which I teach. My commitment to my education as well as to others is interdisciplinary. As a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Scholar in Residence at Northeastern, my work has also included Curriculum development and lectures on integrating African American Poetry and Drama into curriculum for Elementary and Secondary school teachers in Massachusetts. As a Fulbright Professor at Kenyatta University, Nairobi Kenya, East Africa; in the Departments of Literature, and Drama, 1989-1990, I taught American Literature for Master's Students in Literature, Afro-American Poetry & Drama for Senior Year Undergraduates, Introduction to Theatre Arts for Junior students of Literature, and "Introduction to Theatre Arts and Intermediate Theatre Arts." At Indiana University I was designated Faculty-on-Record (specifically created for me to provide me autonomy in developing and teaching my own courses) which were Black Women in America, Afro-American Autobiography, Contemporary Minorities of the U. S., and a Graduate and Undergraduate Seminar in Black Theatre. As Associate Instructor with Phyllis R. Klotman in the Department of Afro-American Studies and the Black Film Center Archives. I taught Black Contemporary Film, and Ethnic/Racial Film Stereotypes. As Artist-in-Residence/Assistant Professor at Denison University, in the Department of Theatre and Cinema, I taught The Theatre Artist (History), Elementary Acting , Voice for the Actor, Scene Study and Voice, Advanced Acting Techniques, "Advanced Directing Techniques," "The Black Performer in American Film," "Black Aesthetics," and "Audition Techniques." As Adjunct Faculty at Boston College in the Black Studies Program I have taught "Black Women and Feminism," "Black Theatre," and "Black Images in Film;" at Boston University, Black Studies Program, "African American Women's Literature;" at Lasell College,Newton, MA. Theatre Department, "Dramatic Literature of Third World Countries;" and at Wheelock College, Boston, "African and African American Drama." Regarding Related Experience, I continue to serve as external advisor and juror on interdisciplinary honors theses and dissertations nationally.