Kenya J. Shujaa

Kenya J. Shujaa is an independent scholar who received her education and training in anthropology at Howard University and the University of Pennsylvania. Her primary research interests include the archaeology and bioarchaeology of West Africa and the African diaspora, particularly the biological and cultural links between West Africans and African-descended peoples in the Americas and interactions between gender and space in West Africa. She has worked professionally in the United States, Peru, Mexico, and Ghana, notably as an osteological technician and, later, as assistant laboratory director and osteologist for the New York African Burial Ground Project. Most recently, she served as bioarchaeological supervisor for the Proyecto Purgatorio (Purgatory Project), in Casma, Peru. Ms. Shujaa’s publications include “Akan Cultural History: An Overview” (Akan People: A Documentary History, edited by Kwasi Konadu, pp. 29-88, Markus Weiner Publishers, 2013); “Gender and Space in Nineteenth Century Asante” (Sankofa Pan-Afrikan Journal of Nationbuilding and ReAfrikanization, 2006); and “Subadult Growth and Development,” with S. K. Goode-Null and Leslie Rankin-Hill (The New York African Burial Ground Skeletal Biology Report, 2004). She has taught anthropology and sociology courses as a member of adjunct faculties at Widener University and the Community College of Philadelphia. In addition to her independent research projects, she currently works as an editor, researcher, and curriculum developer.