Staff Profile | Wonsook Kim College of Fine Arts

About
Education
Awards & Honors
Research

Biography

I am a Professor of Music, and an award-winning and nationally-recognized playwright and performer. I teach courses in Black Music, Ethnomusicology, and I direct the ISU drumming and dance ensemble.

Current Courses

MUS 139.001 African Drumming And Dance Ensemble

MUS 154.001 Black Music II

MUS 154.002 Black Music II

MUS 239.001 Ensemble (African Drumming And Dance)

MUS 439.001 Ensemble: African Drumming And Dance

MUS 456.001 Music and Societies: Women in Music

MUS 356.001 Music And Societies:Women In Music

Teaching Interests & Areas

African American Music, Music in Captivity, Music of African Diaspora, Sensory Studies, Practice-led Research

Research Interests & Areas

Sensory Studies, Practice-led Research, Music in Slave Dungeons

PhD

Florida State University

Tallahassee, Florida

Ellen T. Blaney Book Prize in Humanities

ISU College of Arts and Sciences

2023

University Outstanding Creative Activity Award

University

2020

Grants & Contracts

Walking with My Ancestois. School of Music. Illinois State University. (2022)

Walking with My Ancestors. Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Illinois State University. (2022)

Walking with My Ancestors. Unitarian Universalist Churcn Social Justice Fund. Private. (2022)

Walking with My Ancestors Black History Month Celebration. College of Fine Arts. Illinois State University. (2022)

Performances and Exhibits

Walking with My ANCESTORS
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Cape Coast Castle. September 2024

Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum. January 26 2023 - January 26 2023

Walking with my Ancestores
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Lewis and Clark State Colleg. February 1 2023 - February 5 2023

“What does Emancipation Day Mean to Us?” Juneteenth Celebration, Bloomington, IL (June 2022).
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
June 2022 - June 2022

Challenging Our Musicianship, Expanding our musicality
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum,
School of Music. November 19 2021 - November 19 2021

Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
Mandi Theatre. August 7 2021 - August 7 2021

Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
University of Virginia. March 25 2021 - March 25 2021

Communing with Douglass, Lincoln, and Tubman
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
July 4 2020

End of Semester Performance
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
SOM. November 8 2020

Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum,
University of Massachusetts-Amherst. March 19 2020 - March 20 2020

Walking with My Ancestors
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
University of Georgia. March 4 2020 - March 10 2020

Walking with My Ancestors: Teaching Black History
Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum
University of Missouri. July 20 2020

Book, Authored

Aduonum, A. Walking with Asafo in Ghana. Boydell & Brewer Ltd (2022)

Aduonum, A. Walking with Asafo in Ghana: An Ethnographic Account of Kormantse Bentsir Warrior Music. University of Rochester Press (Boydell and Brewer) (2022): 406 Pages.

Aduonum, A. Beautiful Little Girl: I Like Me!. Anchor Press Books, Ltd. (2020)

Aduonum, A. I Am Proud of My Ancestors: They Overcame. Anchor Press Books, Ltd. (2020): 59.

Book, Chapter

Aduonum, A. Entering the Lives of Others: Entangled Intimacies, Trauma, and Performance. Sidra Lawrence and Michelle Kisliuk (EDs), Intimate Entanglements in the Ethnography of Performance: Race, Gender, Vulnerability. University of Rochester Press, Boydell and Brewer (2023)

Aduonum, A. Entering the Lives of Others: Entangled Intimacies, Trauma, and Performance.. Sidra Lawrence and Michelle Kisliuk (EDs), Intimate Entanglements: Vulnerability in the Ethnography of Performance. University of Rochester Press (2023)

Journal Article

Aduonum, A. Ethnomusicology, Aye Kradow. Frank Gunderson (EDs). Ethnomusicology, University of Illinois Press 65.2 (2021): 203-220.

Aduonum, A. Walking as Fieldwork Method in Ethnomusicology. Frank Gunderson (EDs). Journal for the Society for Ethnomusicology 65.2 (2021): 221-258.

Other

Aduonum, A., Alcalde, M., Meyer, A., Atman, C., Childers, S., Craig, L., Diede, M., Ellis, E., Gullion, J., Hanna, C., & others. Teacher, scholar, mother: Re-envisioning motherhood in the academy. Lexington Books (2015)

Presentations

Repositioning Dondology as An-African Centered Discipline. Ist Symposium for Dondology. Aduonum Creative Projects and Dondololgy Advocacy Committee. (2025)

Walking with my Ancestors. Revisiting Ancestral Knowledge Systems. (2025)

Book TALK: Walking with Asafo In Ghana.. University of Cape Coast Graduate Seminar, Department of Music and Dance. University of Cape Coast, Department of Music and Dance. (2024)

Book TALK: Walking with Asafo In Ghana.. University of Cape Coast, Department of Music and Dance Graduate Seminar. University of Cape Coast, Department of Music and Dance. (2024)

Bi Nka Bi: Finding, Celebrating, and Sustaining Our Authentic Selves as Artists, Scholars, and Instructors. Bi Nka Bi: Finding, Celebrating, and Sustaining Our Authentic Selves as Artists, Scholars, and Instructors. Center for Integrative Professional Development. (2023)

Creative Fictions and Silence. Society for Ethnomusicology. Society for Ethnomusicology. (2023)

Moving Away from Whiteness: The Musicologist of Africa as An Indigenous Scholar. International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance (ICTMD). (2023)

Moving Away in Silence. International Council for Music and Dance. (2023)

Music and Melanin at ISU. Black Heritage Ball. ISU Black Students Organization. (2023)

Walking with Asafo in Ghana: Book Reading and Talk. Book Reading and Talk. Milner Library. (2023)

Walking with Asafo: Decentering Music Research and Theory. Midwest Chapter for Ethnomusicology. (2023)

https://bfe2023.wordpress.com/our-keynote-speaker/

Who will Sing for their Feet. Practice-based and practice-led reseatch. University of Virginia. (2021)

Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Decolonization and Afro-Feminism. Institute of African Studies Readings Decolonization. (2020)

Re-Envisioning African Musicology. Re-envisioning African Musicology. African Music Section of Society for Ethnomusicology. (2020)

Nana Hemaa Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum