Yolanda Covington-Ward

  • Associate Professor, Africana Studies

Yolanda Covington-Ward is an anthropologist whose scholarly interests revolve around performance, group identity, the embodiment of religion and history, and everyday negotiations of power and authority. Her dissertation, “Embodied Histories, Danced Religions, and Performed Politics: Kongo Cultural Performance and the Production of History and Authority” (2008) was based on a year of ethnographic research in the Democratic Republic of Congo and six and a half weeks of archival research in Belgium.

Research Description

Dr. Yolanda Covington-Ward is an Associate Professor of Africana Studies, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Anthropology. She is also an affiliated faculty member in the Global Studies Center, the African Studies Program, and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Programs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research places the body at the center of human experience, and focuses on the dynamic multidirectional relationship between physical bodies and group identity. Personal Website

Courses

Introduction to Africana Studies.

Women of Africa and the African Diaspora.

Cultures of Africa.