​Reverend Roland Barksdale-Hall
Background
Focus: To promote cultural appreciation of humanities and literature, advance community engagement and outreach in an underserved community
 
Chairman Emeritus, Jah Kente International, Inc Washington, D.C
Served for 21 years as chairman of an Arts and Humanities organizations that addresses performing, visual, media communication arts, promotes humanities studies, including ethnohistory, literature, and research.
 
Professor 
Undergraduate courses taught, including Introduction to Africana Literature, Information Literacy, Critical Thinking, and 20th Century World History; graduate-level courses: Management of Libraries, Introduction to Research, History of Books and Printing.
 
Books and other Publication
(Partial listing of more than 30 publications about humanities, literature, history, family studies and leadership).
 
Barksdale-Hall, Roland. “Pittsburgh Courier,” Karamu House” and “The Messenger” in The Harlem Renaissance: An Encyclopedia of Arts, Culture and History.  Venetria Patton (Ed.)  Greenwood Publishing (forthcoming).
 
“Uhuru Celebration of Individual and Collective Healing and Empowerment”” in The Black Librarian in America: Reflections, Resistance and Reawakening.  Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (2022)
 
Community Engagement Stimulates Collaboration and Innovation for Local History and Genealogy Programming to Public Housing Residents,” in Genealogy and the Librarian: Perspectives on Research, Instruction, Outreach and Management.  McFarland Publishers, 2018.
 
“Librarian Writer Supports Courageous Conversations, Critical Multiculturalism and Communal Networks” in Library Partnerships with Writers and Poets (2017).     
 
African Americans in Mercer County.  New York: Arcadia Books (2009).
 
“Juneteenth,” in Africa and the Americas.  Richard M. Juang and Noelle Morisette (Eds.).  
Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO (2008).
 
“Daisy Lampkin” and “Black Cartoonists” in Encyclopedia of African Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present.  Paul Finkelman (Ed).  Oxford University Press (2008).
 
“Andrew Jackson Beard” in African American National Biography. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (Eds.).  Oxford University Press (2008).
 
--“Editorial: Full Circle: Engaging African Diaspora Discourse and Dialogue.” The Journal of Pan African Studies.
1:8 (peer-reviewed).
 
 “Chinua Achebe: A Bio-bibliographic Review.” The Journal of Pan African Studies.  1:8 (peer-reviewed). 
 
“The Testimony of William Hunter Dammond (1873-1956)—the first African American graduate of the University of
Pittsburgh.” The Journal of Pan African Studies.  1:8 (peer-reviewed). 
 
“Developing Critical Thinkers for Today and Tomorrow.”  Information Equality, Africa.  2:9-12 (2006).
 
“Black Family,” “Entrepreneurs, Nineteenth Century”, and “Inheritance and Slave Status,” in Encyclopedia of African
 Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895 (3 vols).  Paul Finkelman (Ed).  Oxford University Press (2006).
 
The African-American Family’s Guide to Tracing Our Roots, Healing, Understanding and Restoring Our Families. New York: Amber Books (2005).   
 
“Sterling Plumpp” in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature (5 vols). Emmanuel S. Nelson
 (Ed). Westport: Greenwood Press (2005).
 
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS; PUBLICATIONS; AWARDS; HONORS AND EDUCATION
2015 BCALA National Leadership Award; BCALA Executive Board, 2002-2004; Paper, “Teaching Information Literacy to Marginalized Communities,” presented at the Georgia Conference on Information Literacy, Georgia Southern University, Savannah, GA, October, 6-7, 2006; “Preparing for the Future: Strategic Planning and Leadership in Special Collections.” Against the Grain 16(1): 30-32 (2004); Leadership Shenango; ARL Library Management Skills Institute I: The Manager; 2011 Mercer County NAACP Community Service Award; Phi Alpha Theta; 2014 Ministry License of Ordination; MA History, Leadership and Liberal Studies, Duquesne University; MLS, BS Biology, University of Pittsburgh