Member Map

Dr. Angela McMillan Howell

Affiliated Institutions

Morgan State University

Angela Howell is a cultural anthropologist and associate professor at Morgan State University who specializes in African American identity, youth culture, and education. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Morgan State University (2000) and her A.M. (2000) and Ph.D. (2007) from Brown University. Her new book entitled Raised Up Down Yonder: Growing Up Black in Rural Alabama (University Press of Mississippi 2013) explores the everyday lives of young African Americans who live in a small Black Belt town. Additionally, she has begun her next major project on vernacular literacy in Baltimore, MD. Howell has devoted her career to dispelling the myth that African Americans-youth especially-are "social problems."

Areas of Research

African Americans, education, oral history

Publications

Howell, Angela. “President-elect Obama: His Symbolic Importance in His Own Words.” Journal of African American Studies 13(2): 187-189, 2009.

Howell, Angela. “Our National Obsession with Toddlers and Tiaras.” Anthropology Now. 5(1): 85-92, 2013.

Howell, Angela. “Decolonization Continued: Anthropology and HBCUs” coauthored with Elgin Klugh. June 2013. Anthropology News. Association of Black Anthropologists News Column.

Howell, Angela. Raised Up Down Yonder: Growing Up Black in Rural Alabama, The University Press of Mississippi, Fall 2013.

Projects

Baltimore, MD, United States

Love and Literacy in Black Baltimore: Language in Social Context

This project explores how literacy has been intricately interwoven into families, organizations, and communities among blacks in Baltimore from the early 1900s to the present.

Easton, MD, United States

The Historic Hill Community

I am working on a transdisciplinary project with the Morgan State University School of Architecture and Planning (SAP) that engages students, faculty, and design professionals in the development of a small area plan for "The Hill" community in Easton, MD. The Hill community is currently being documented as the oldest continuously inhabited free African American Community in the United States. I am also collecting oral histories from members of the community.

Baltimore, MD, United States

The Historic Hill Community

I am working on a transdisciplinary project with the Morgan State University School of Architecture and Planning (SAP) that engages students, faculty, and design professionals in the development of a small area plan for "The Hill" community in Easton, MD. The Hill community is currently being documented as the oldest continuously inhabited free African American Community in the United States. I am also collecting oral histories from members of the community.

Alabama, United States

Raised Up Down Yonder: Growing Up Black in Rural Alabama

I traveled to the small community of Hamilton, Alabama to investigate what it is like for a young black person to grow up in the contemporary rural South. I attempt to shift focus away from why black youth are "problematic" and instead explore what their daily lives actually entail. I use personal biography, historical accounts, sociolinguistic analysis, and community narratives to illustrate persistent racism, class divisions, and resistance in a new context.

United States

Decolonization Continued: Anthropology and HBCUs

This is ongoing work with Dr. Elgin Klugh at Coppin State University about the interesting relationship between the discipline of anthropology and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/06/01/decolonization-continued/