Abioseh Porter

I was born and raised in Sierra Leone, West Africa. I am a Professor of English at Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. I am currently Director of Africana Studies. I served as Department Head of the Department of English & Philosophy at Drexel from May 2002-December 2015 and as the founding editor of the Journal of the African Literature Association (JALA) from 2007-2017. I was also editor of JALA’s predecessor, the ALA Bulletin from 1998-2007. After earning a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Alberta, Canada, I received a "Society for the Humanities" postdoctoral Fellowship at Cornell University and was also a senior postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Prior to coming to Drexel, I taught at the University of Alberta and at Grambling State University, Louisiana. I have published mainly on African authors while my teaching interests span several areas in both the western and non-western literary traditions.