Lynda Day

"Yoko of Senehun, 1878-1884: From Mediator to "Ruler of Sierra Leone's Kpa Mende Confederacy, Journal of West African History, forthcoming Fall 2025.

Published Making a Way to Freedom: A History of African Americans on Long Island (Long Island Studies Institute, Hofstra University: Interlaken Press, 1997.

Accepted for publication, "Yoko of Senehun, 1878-1884: From Mediator to "Ruler" of the Kpa Mende Confederacy," Journal of West African History.

"Women's Empowerment, Women Chiefs and a Feminist Agenda." Chapter 5 in Josephine Beoku-Betts and Fredline M'Cormack, eds. War, Women's Empowerment in Post-War Sierra Leone (Zed Books, 2022).

"African Women Traditional Chiefs and Rulers." Palgrave Handbook of African Women's Studies. SpringerLink. First online June 19, 2020. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-319-77030-7_28-1.

"Nana Yaa Asantewa." Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Oxford University Press. First online April 2020. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.656.

Completed solicited article "Judith Van Allen and the Impact of her article, 'Sitting on Man: The Lost Political Institutions of Igbo Women' in the Classroom." Journal of West African History 3:2. Fall.

"Anatomy of an Evolving Movement: The Women's Peace Movement and Political Activism in Sierra Leone Since the 1990s." JENdA: A Journal of Culture and African Women's Studies. Africa Knowledge Press. Online publication.

"Women Chiefs and Post War Reconstruction in Sierra Leone." African and Asian Studies 14: 19-39. Special Issue on current scholarship on women in Sierra Leone.

Gender and Power, Women Chiefs of Sierra Leone, the Last Two Hundred Years. (Palgrave/Macmillan).

Edited and wrote the introduction for The Woodchopper: A Cultural Autobiography, by William Onyebeke. Philadelphia: Xlibris Press.

"'Bottom Power:' Theorizing Feminism and the Women's Movement in Sierra Leone (1981-2007)." African and Asian Studies 7: 491-513.

"Nyarroh of Bandasuma, 1885-1914: A Reinterpretation of Female Chieftaincy in Sierra Leone." Journal of African History 48: 415-37.

Headnote for "The Women of Senehun (1882)." Women Writing Africa: West Africa and the Sahel. Eds. Esi Sutherland Addy and Aminata Diaw. New York: The Feminist Press.

"What's Tourism Got to Do With It?: The Yaa Asantewa Legacy and Development in Asanteman." Africa Today, fall.

Fulbright Senior Research/Lecture Award to teach and conduct research at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana.

Awarded a PSC-CUNY grant for a research assistant.

Awarded a Tow Faculty Research grant for conference attendance and manuscript preparation.

Visiting Research Fellow. African Studies Program. University of Wisconsin-Madison.

CUNY Diversity Grant for Brooklyn hip hop panel presentation.

Tow Faculty Grant, for travel to Sierra Leone for 10 days in April. Archival and field research on Madam Yoko, 19th-century leader of the Mende in Sierra Leone.

PSC-CUNY research travel grant. Sierra Leone, West Africa. January.

CUNY Diversity grant for WGST Endowed Chair programs.

PSC-CUNY Research Travel Grant, for travel to Sierra Leone. Research trip made in January 2012.

Endowed Chair, Brooklyn College Women' s Studies Program, 2010-12.

Research associate, Five College Women's Studies Research Center, Mount Holyoke College.

Tow Faculty Travel Grant and PSC-CUNY Travel Grant, Sierra Leone.

Continued research for a biography of Madam Yoko, a woman chief of colonial Sierra Leone, with visits to the Northwestern University African Studies Collection in April and the National Archives in London in June.

Conducted research in Sierra Leone for manuscript, "Women Paramount Chiefs of the Mende: Marginality and Power," during January intersession. This research was supported by a PSC-CUNY grant awarded in June 2006.

"Slavery on Long Island." Presentation at Adelphi University. Feb. 10, 2025. Invited by the African, Black and Caribbean Studies Program.

Panelist on the "Africana Now" panel in the I Am Africana Conference sponsored by the Department of Africana Studies, Brooklyn College

Third presentation on the History of African Americans on Long Island. Stony Book Hospital Medical Education Department. September, 2025.

Third presentation on the History of African Americans on Long Island. Stony Book Hospital Medical Education Department.

Black History Month presentation on the History of African Americans on Long Island. Stony Brook University, Africana Studies Department.

Presentation on the History of African Americans on Long Island. Stony Book Hospital Medical Education Department. April, 2023

Presented a paper, The Contested Historiography of Madam Yoko, A Woman Leader of Early Colonial Sierra Leone, 65th Annual African Studies Association, Philadelphia, PA. November 2022.

"Harriet Tubman: A Woman of God." Women's History Month Program. Congregational Church of South Hempstead-United Church of Christ.

Invited keynote speaker. "Valiant Women of the Vote: Refusing to be Silenced." Women's History Month program. Mid-Island Club-National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc. March 20.

Panel participant. BC Faculty Day panel, #Cancel Culture: The Fallout for Cultural Artifacts when the Artist Comes into Question. Presentation title, "One Historian's Perspective on Cancel Culture." May 19.

Panel participant. Hess Scholar in Residence panel, Before 1492: Comparative Pre-Modern Colonialisms. Presentation title, "Premodern Colonialism in Africa." Oct. 28.

Panelist, "Slavery on Long Island." Sponsored by the Interfaith Institute (IFI) of Long Island. Moderated by Bob Keeler, former Newsday correspondent. February 10.

Panelist, online conversation marking the release of the book Long Road to Freedom: Surviving Slavery on Long Island, by Jonathan Olly. Long Island Museum. March 10.

"The History of African Americans on Long Island and Their African Roots." Black History Month program. Brentwood Public Library. February 2.

Symposium Presentation. "Friends in the Spirit: Slavery, Freedmen and the Quakers of Long Island." Symposium for the exhibit "Long Road to Freedom: Surviving Slavery on Long Island." Long Island Museum. Stony Brook, NY. March 9.

"Yoko of Mendeland: Queen or Collaborator?" Africa at Noon Seminar series. African Studies Program. University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. October 17.

Paper presentation, "Yoko of Senehun and the Modernization of Mendeland." 11th Annual Greater New York Area African History Workshop. CUNY Graduate Center. April 7.

"The History of Jim Crow Segregation in America: Focus on Long Island." Black History Month talk. Wyandanch Public Library. February 12.

"Women Chiefs and Post-War Reconstruction in Sierra Leone" at the Florida Atlantic University Center for Women, Gender, and Sexuality Symposium, The Politics of Women's Empowerment in Post-War Sierra Leone.

"African American History on Long Island." Black History Month. Wyandanch Public Library.

"History of Juneteenth Day." Wyandanch Public Library. June 19.

Participant. Brooklyn Historical Society Why New York? Panel discussion series. Slavery on Long Island.

Presented my current research and projected findings for the biography of Madam Yoko, Leader of the Kpa Mende Confederacy, at the New York Area African Historians Workshop, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., March 28.

Presented my research on women chiefs and the Sierra Leone women's movement at a State Department roundtable discussion on Sierra Leone, Aug. 25.

"Women Chiefs in Post-war Reconstruction in Sierra Leone." 56th Annual African Studies Association Meeting. Baltimore, Nov. 16.

Organizer and moderator, "Race, Representation and Social Responsibility" panel, as part of the Brooklyn College Global Media Ethics Conference. March 15-16.

Participant, "Slavery on Long Island" panel, as part of the Hofstra University Cultural Center symposium commemorating the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Nov. 5-13.

Presented the co-authored paper "Women's Peace Movements and Post-War Reconstruction in Sierra Leone and Liberia." 54th annual African Studies Association Meeting. Washington, D.C.

Day, Lynda and Josephine Beoku-Betts. "Women's Peace Movements and Post-War Reconstruction in Sierra Leone and Liberia." Published in the proceedings of the International Sociological Association annual meeting in Sweden.

"Women Chiefs of Sierra Leone: A Reinterpretation." Five Colleges Women's Studies Research Center. Mount Holyoke College, Mar. 11.

"Women Chiefs in War and Post-War Reconstruction of Sierra Leone," Fifth Annual Greater New York Historians of Africa Workshop. Hofstra University, Mar. 8.

"'Bottom Power': Theorizing Feminism and Women's Political Activism in Sierra Leone," 50th Annual African Studies Association Meeting. New York, October 19.

Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program

Director, Africana Research Center, Brooklyn College

Interim Director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Honors Program. Oversaw advisement, stipends, and research training for eight minority honors students. 2020-2012

Member, the African Studies Association Women's Caucus Student Travel Award Committee.

Chaired the African Studies Association Women's Caucus Student Travel Award Committee.

Advisory Council. Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association.

Chaired the African Studies Association Women's Caucus Student Travel Award Committee.

Served on the African Studies Association Women's Caucus Student Travel Award committee.

Organizer, Sixth Annual New York Area Historians of Africa Workshop, Brooklyn College, March 6.

Treasurer, Women's Caucus, African Studies Association.

Co-chairperson, Brooklyn College Middle States Re-Accreditation Steering Committee.

Treasurer, Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association.

Co-chairperson, "Gender and Human Rights" program subcommittee, 50th Annual African Studies Association.

Treasurer, Women's Caucus of the African Studies Association.

Led tenth month long Study Abroad to Ghana Program. June, 2024

Conducted the tenth faculty-led BC Study Abroad Seminar to Ghana. Nine students and one assistant professor. The program included an internship at the FOCOS Hospital in Accra.

Organized and led the ninth Ghana Study Abroad Program. Eight students and one assistant professor.

Led monthlong study abroad program to Ghana. Taught two courses as part of the program.

Organized and lead seventh summer study abroad program to Ghana, with 10 student participants and one program assistant. Students attended lectures and seminars with Ghanaian professors, toured historic sites, and participated in service teaching and learning workshops in the town of Besease in the Ashanti region.

Organized and led sixth study abroad program to Ghana. Fourteen students and one college assistant participated. Students were enrolled in one of three courses.

Offered a course, Africana Studies 11.5, "Southern Africa," in Cape Town, South Africa, as a study abroad program with Brooklyn College students. Sponsored by the Mellon-Mays University Fellowship of the Honors Academy.

Conducted third Summer Seminar Abroad to Ghana with 11 Brooklyn College students.

Co-curated a permanent exhibition of African artifacts for the Joysetta and Julius Pearse African American Museum of Nassau County

Board Member. Lefferts Historical House and Museum. Prospect Park Conservancy

Launched a Ghana based non-governmental organization, the Just a Chance Foundation, to assist young mothers in Besease Ghana.

Trustee, Congregational Church of South Hempstead

Elected to the Church Board, the governing body of the Congregational Church of South Hempstead. Continuing service on the Trustee Board.

Gave talks on African folktales, travel to Ghana, and the Narrative of Olaudah Equiano at Pine Forest High School, Fayetteville, North Carolina. September 18.

"Visiting the Motherland!" Talk at the Brooklyn Explore Charter School PTA annual Black History Month program.

Black History Month presentation on African culture and contemporary affairs at the Shawungunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill, N.Y., February 28.

Funded a toilet facility and piped in water for the Junior High School in Besease, Ghana.

Black History Month Speaker, Nassau County Historical Society, February 19.

Black History Month Speaker, Roosevelt Public Library, February 12.

Presentation on Africa to students in the Summer Health Internship Program at the Nassau County Medical Center, July 25.

Women's History Month Speaker, Congregational Church of South Hempstead, March 16.

Consultant for the Long Island Museum upcoming exhibit, Riding Toward Justice, an examination of racial segregation in nineteenth century NYC public transportation.

Accompanied BC National Black Science Students Organization (NBSSO)students on a mission trip to Ghana.

On camera interview for New York 1 discussion of the Juneteenth holiday. June 18.

Consultant to review and edit the signage for the Sankofa Park African Burial Ground in New Lots, Brooklyn.

Participant. BC Black Faculty and Staff Panel. Flatbush African Burial Ground presentation.

Article Peer Reviewer. Journal of Slavery & Abolition. Published out of University College London. Special issue, Slavery and Marriage in African Societies. Draft article title: "The Same in All but Name? The Intersections of Marriage and Slavery in Sierra Leone, 1890-1930."

Article Peer reviewer. Oxford Encyclopedia of African Women's History, "Sierra Leone Women"

Online public affairs interview discussing Reparations for Slavery on "Represent NYC," Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Aired Feb. 23, 2020 http://www.mnn.org. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP1RSXOkBFk

Consultant and reviewer for the Long Island Museum exhibit "Long Road to Freedom: Surviving Slavery on Long Island."

Accompanied NBSSO students on a mission trip to Ghana. January.

External reviewer, Nassau Community College African American Studies Department, Garden City, N.Y. Site visit, April 27. Wrote the evaluators' report.

External evaluator, Nassau Community College Africana Studies Department's periodic review.

External evaluator for the SUNY New Paltz Black Studies Department's Ten-Year Review.

Fellow, 2006 class of the Higher Education Resources Services (HERS) Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration, Bryn Mawr College. June 25-July 21.