THIS IS DR. AMMA

Scholartist* Dr. Amma Y. Ghartey-Tagoe Kootin (a.k.a. Dr. Amma) creates artistic works based on archival research for the stage and screen and writes about late-19th-century black performance. An assistant professor of theatre and African American Studies at the University of Georgia, she bridges the worlds of academia and arts/entertainment having worked for A&E Networks®/The History Channel, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and National History Day, Inc. Dr. Amma’s creative research has received a number of grants and fellowships including an Innovative Seed Grant (University of Colorado Boulder), a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a Harvey Fellowship (Mustard Seed Foundation), and an American Philosophical Society Fellowship. Her current projects are an historical musical about black performers in the 1901 World’s Fair entitled, AT BUFFALO, and a book about the relation between laughter and the American slave experience, entitled Laughing after Slavery: The Performances and Times of Laughing Ben Ellington.

Recently, The History Channel selected Dr. Amma to join the ranks of Ang Lee and Gloria Estefan as one of 37 extraordinary immigrants/children of immigrants whose stories are featured at Ellis Island’s Museum of Immigration. Dr. Amma holds an A.B. in Afro-American Studies from Harvard University and an M.A./Ph.D. in Performance Studies from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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