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Christopher
Brooks is a Professor of Anthropology in
the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth
University in Richmond, Virginia. He also holds a
joint appointment in the Department of African American
Studies.
He has numerous publications focusing on the African
continental and diasporan experience. He is an editor
of the forthcoming African American Almanac 10th
edition (Thomas Gale 2007) in which he has written
several
major sections including “Africa and the African Diaspora.” He
has been a contributing writer to the African and African-American
Religions and Religion and War volumes in the Religion
and Society Series published by Routledge (2001 and 2003
respectively). He has a chapter celebrating the centennial
of W.E.B Dubois’ landmark publication, The Souls
of Black Folk 100 Years Later, entitled “The Souls
of Black Folk: Can a Double-Consciousness Be Heard?” (University
of Missouri Press 2003), where he examined the prophetic
statement DuBois made about the crucial issue of
the 20th century being the race question.
As
a seasoned biographer, he has produced several book length
manuscripts including I Never Walked Alone:
The Autobiography
of an American Singer (John Wiley 2003), and a forthcoming
book, Follow Your Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz,
Swing and Rhythm and Blues (University of Illinois Press
2008). He recently completed an edited book, Dangerous
Intimacy: Ten African American Men with HIV. He is
currently researching
a book on the great African American tenor, Roland Hayes,
tentatively entitled, Prepare Me One Body: Roland Hayes,
Aframerica’s Tenor. Brooks has articles in several
journals including American Anthropologist, The International
Review of African American Art, The Literary Griot, Black
Sacred Music, The International Journal of Black Oral and
Literary Studies, African American Review, and The Encyclopedia
of African American Folklore, among others. As a Senior Fulbright
Researcher, he examined women’s
rights organizations and their response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic
in Zimbabwe and South Africa. He was also a Senior Research
Fellow at the Southern African Research Institute for Policy
Studies (SARIPS) in Harare, Zimbabwe (now called SAPES Trust).
While there he also lectured part-time at Arrupe Jesuit College
and the University of Zimbabwe. In July 2007, Brooks was
in Kenya to evaluate a Christian Children’s Fund program
which delivers services to HIV/AIDS and other vulnerable
orphans (OVC). Dr. Brooks has been a long-term volunteer at Deep Meadow
Correctional Facility in Powhatan, Virginia. He assists the
incarcerated population with literacy and writing issues
and lectures to the inmates on anthropological topics.
Christopher Brooks is represented by Claudia Menza of the
Menza/Barron Literary Agency in New York City.
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