Bennetta Jules-Rosette

African & African-American Studies Research Center

AAASRC office phone: 858-822-0265

Bennetta Jules-Rosette is Professor of Sociology at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and Director of the African and African-American Studies Research Center. As Director, she organizes research programs, symposia, community and youth outreach, and cultural events focusing on Africa and the African diaspora. She received her B.A. (Summa Cum Laude) in Social Relations from Radcliffe College and her M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1973) from Harvard University in Social Relations (Sociology and Anthropology). Professor Jules-Rosette's research interests include contemporary African art and literature, semiotic studies of Black Paris, religious discourse, new technologies in Africa, and museum studies. Since 1969, she has conducted a series of field studies in Congo (DRC-Kinshasa), Zambia, Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and France. Dr. Jules-Rosette's major publications include: African Apostles (Cornell, 1975), A Paradigm for Looking (Ablex, 1977), The New Religions of Africa (Ablex, 1979), Symbols of Change (Ablex, 1981), The Messages of Tourist Art (Plenum, 1984), Terminal Signs: Computers and Social Change in Africa (Mouton de Gruyter, 1990), Black Paris: The African Writers' Landscape (University of Illinois Press, 1998), Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image (University of Illinois Press, 2007), and African Art Reframed: Reflections and Dialogues on Museum Culture (University of Illinois Press, 2020). Professor Jules-Rosette serves as a consulting editor for African Arts magazine and the Journal of Southern African Studies and a senior editor of the visual studies journal, Critical Interventions. She has also served as Chair of the Sociology Department at UCSD (1981 and 1982-1985), President of the Semiotic Society of America (1988-89) and President of the Society for Africanist Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association (2005-2009). Additionally, Bennetta Jules-Rosette is in charge of the Bennetta Jules-Rosette Graduate Student Essay Award named in her honor by the Association for Africanist Anthropology (AfAA) of the American Anthropological Association.

African Art Reframed (University of Illinois Press, 2020)

Josephine Baker in Art and Life: The Icon and the Image (University of Illinois Press, 2007)

Black Paris: The African Writers' Landscape (University of Illinois Press, 1998)

Terminal Signs: Computers and Social Change in Africa (Mouton de Gruyter, 1990)

The Messages of Tourist Art (Plenum, 1984)

Symbols of Change (Ablex, 1981)

The New Religions of Africa (Ablex, 1979)

A Paradigm for Looking (Ablex, 1977)

African Apostles (Cornell, 1975)

Bennetta Jules-Rosette has also published over 100 academic articles.