Julian Kunnie is Professor of Religious Studies/Classics at the University of Arizona. He is the author of numerous articles in various internationally recognized journals and books. He is the author (with Nomalungelo Goduka) of Indigenous Wisdom and Power: Affirming our Knowledge Through Narratives (2006); Is Apartheid Really Dead? Pan Africanist Working Class Cultural Critical Perspectives (2000); and Models of Black Theology: Issues of Class, Culture, and Gender (1994). His forthcoming book is Globalization and Its Victims: Wars Against the Earth and the Impoverished of the World. His has produced two educational DVDs - Umoya: The Spirit in Africa (2000), which illustrates the dynamic growth of Indigenous Churches in Africa; and Black and Brown: An Afro-Latino Journey (2006), which explores the ancient African presence in Mexico. He produced two DVDs in 2011, aided by Veronica Martinez - We Belong to Mother Earth: Dineh Elder and Hataali Jones Benally Speaks and The Global Indigenous Peoples Performing Arts Festival, from Pingtung, Taiwan, following his research visit to Taiwan and China in August 2011. He has delivered papers and lectures at colleges, universities, and communities on six continents. Kunnie is currently working on a prison research project that interrogates issues of race, class, and gender and is geared toward preventing the incarceration of youth, particularly those of color. He has visited Napierville Correctional Facility in South Africa and San Quentin Correctional Facility in California for his research. He recently launched the Nyakweri Ecological Restoration and Preservation Project with Samwel Naikada from Transmara, Kenya, that is concerned with studying the impact of global warming and climate change on the Nyakweri Forest Preserve. The project trains students in areas of ecological sustainability through practical immersion and living in the Nyakweri forest. Over the years and during his tenure as Professor and Director of Africana Studies at the UA, Kunnie pioneered/taught courses in Africana Philosophy, History, Political Economy, Geography, Psychology, History of Religions, Racism and Social Change, and Aesthetics of Dance. He currently teaches courses in African/Indigenous Religions, African American Religion, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and is planning to teach a new course on Indigenous Religions, Buddhism, and Christianity in 2012.

I am a faculty member of BARA (Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology), which is responsible for many successes in research and outreach presences in sub-Saharan Africa, primarily Senegal, Mauritania, Niger and Tanzania. BARA plans to create linkages with African partners, including government agencies and universities, and to use these networks to assess the needs of local communities, to promote local priorities for endogenous development, and to engage in problem-solving research that supports development interventions in these communities. I received my B.A. (1983) in Philosophy and Sociology and M.A. (1985) in Anthropology from the University of Dakar (Senegal). I received my Ph.D. (1996) in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Arizona.