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BARBARA G. HOFFMAN
Associate
Professor
CB 145 (Office)
CB 217-221
(Visual Anthropology Center)
2121 Euclid Avenue.
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Phone: (216) 687-3549 / 2404; Fax:(216) 687-9384
Email: b.hoffman@csuohio.edu
Research Interests:
As an undergraduate French major, I went to France during my junior year for a semester abroad. Among the first people I met were young Africans studying at
the University of Paris. My interest in African languages and lifeways began at that time; the following year I spent part of the summer in Côte d'Ivoire studying
an endangered language, Tagbana, and have been returning to Africa almost yearly every since. Most interesting to me are the myriad cultural expressions of social identity: gender, ethnicity, caste, class, and kinship, among others. Here are some of the culture areas I've worked in:
Mande Cultures (Mali, Guinea, Senegal, Burkina Faso)
My doctoral
research at Indiana University focused on how language communicates
social status among Mande groups in West Africa where society is
organized in castes as well as patrilineages, clans, and matrifocal
family groups. My book, Griots
at War: Conflict, Conciliation, and Caste in Mande (Indiana
University Press, 2000) discusses the intricacies of the Mande caste
system where the language of griots -- their speech -- differentiates
them from members of the noble or freeborn caste.
Currently, I'm studying the ways that globalization, privatization, and habitat are changing Malian ideas about kinship, marriage, and family structure in urban areas.
Maasai Culture (Kenya)
I've developed
an interest in visual anthropology as well, and during a Fulbright
year in Kenya ('97-'98) as well as a return field period in January, 2004, filmed footage for a series
of ethnographic films on gender and culture change among the
Maasai. The first two films in the series,Womanhood
and Circumcision: Three Maasai Women Have Their Say, and
Making
Maasai Men: Growing Courage Toward Circumcision, are
being distributed by Berkeley Media. Two more films are in post-production
in the Department of Anthropology's Visual Anthropology Center.
Students who enroll in my course on visual anthropology (ANT
323) have worked on these films with me, and receive credits
in the film as well as in the class!
Endangered Languages (Togo, Ghana)
In 2000-2002, my fieldwork in Togo and Ghana focused on the sociocultural dimensions of language shift in two of the Togo Remnant Languages (Igo and Anyimere). My comparative study is set to appear as a chapter in the forthcoming book, Ethnographic Contributions to the Study of Endangered Languages, from Arizona University Press.
Engaged Learning Initiatives: Bringing Africa to Cleveland
Nearly ever
year, I work in collaboration with various programs, departments,
and offices around campus to bring Africans to the CSU campus
for public programs on cultural topics.
Nakunte Diarra: Bogolanfini Artist from Mali
 An
interest I've shared with CSU and the greater Cleveland community is the textile art of bogolanfini (mudcloth) from Mali. In 1994, CSU sponsored a public program and
exhibit of the work of Nakunte Diarra, master bogolanfini artist, whom I've know since 1986. Nakunte came to Cleveland and
stayed in my home for 5 weeks, during which time she gave demonstrations
of her art here at CSU as well as at the African-American Museum,
Tri-C, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Since 1999, her work has
been on permanent display at the Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History's African Voices exhibit
and is also in the collections of the Indiana University Art Museum,
the Fashion Institute of Technology, the Newark Museum, and others.
The government of Mali sent her to represent the art form at the 2003
Smithsonian Folklife Festival - a venue attended by millions of
people from around the worldl. Carole Lade, our current departmental secretary who was at that time one of our majors, edited a film
about Nakunte and her art for her ANT 323 class project; I built
on her project to edit a limited-edition DVD, Through the Eyes
of a Master: Nakunte Diarra's Bogolanfini, which was offered
for sale at the festival with all profits going directly to Nakunte
Diarra.
Mande Griot Papa Susso
I
n 2002, 2006 and again in
2008, we brought El Haji Papa Susso, a famous Gambian griot,
to CSU with his musical troupe where he gave a series of lecture/performances
about griots and their music. Two of our majors interviewed
Susso and his colleagues for a video documentary while several
others organized a performance in the dormitory and sessions
with students.
Maasai Cultural Exchanges: SIMOO and Alice Lasoi from Kenya
In the fall of 2002, 2003, and 2004, a group
of Maasai educators from the Simba Maasai Outreach Organization
(SIMOO) visited CSU at our request and gave a series of lectures
about their culture that included performances of song and dance.
In
Spring of 2006, one of the members of SIMOO, Alice Lasoi, came
to Cleveland and lectured not only here at CSU, but also at Case,
John Carroll, Lorain County Community College, and Lakeland Community
College. Many of our students have the opportunity to interact
directly with our African guests both in and out of class. Alice has returned to Cleveland each year since then, offering thousands of Cleveland high school, college, and university students as well as community members the opportunity to learn about her country and culture.
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