معرفی
Dr. Pamela Blakely is a Lecturer in African Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught for 27 years. She established the Kiswahili language program and previously served as a Faculty Fellow at Van Pelt (now Gregory) College House. Her research focuses on East and Central African languages and cultures, particularly women’s song-dances in funerary rituals among the Báhêmbá people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She co-authored Seeing Anthropology: Cultural Anthropology Through Film and contributed to the USAID-funded North Shaba Project in rural development.
Education: Ph.D. in African Studies and Folklore from Indiana University; M.A. and B.A. in Fine Arts from Harvard University. She also studied Kiswahili at the University of Dar Es Salaam and learned Kíhêmbá during fieldwork in Congo.
Research emphasizes ethnographic documentation of daily and ritual life in rural communities, with a focus on gendered performance practices and linguistic anthropology. Awards include Fulbright and Social Science Research Council grants. She holds a dual role as Honors Program Coordinator and Professor of Anthropology at Reading Area Community College.
