Dr. Salim Faraji

Professor

Dr. Salim Faraji is Professor and former Chair of Africana Studies at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is also the founding Executive Director of the Master of Arts in International Studies (MAIS) Africa Program at Concordia University Irvine in Ghana, West Africa. He completed his Master of Divinity at the Claremont School of Theology and M.A. and Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University. He is a member of the International Society for Nubian Studies and specializes in early Christian history, Africana and Africanist historiography, Coptic Studies and the Kerma, Napatan, Meroitic and Medieval periods of Nubian history. He has presented papers on Nubian Christianity at the 11th International Conference for Meroitic Studies in Vienna, Austria and the 12th and 13th International Conferences for Nubian Studies at the British Museum and the Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, respectively. More recently Dr. Faraji presented “The Ascendancy of the Kushite Kingdom of Kerma in the Post Middle Kingdom Era: Revisiting the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt” at the 14th International Conference for Nubian Studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne/Louvre Museum. Dr. Faraji is also a founding member of the William Leo Hansberry Society and a member of the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center (AmSARC). He is one of a handful of Nubiologists in the United States and the only Africana Studies scholar in the country who is also a Coptic Studies specialist. Professor Faraji is a contributor to Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World, the Encyclopedia of African Religion, the Oxford Dictionary of African Biography and the author of The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered: The Triumph of the Last Pharaoh.

Dr. Faraji has traveled and worked extensively on the African continent in such nations as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia and Namibia as both a scholar and activist-humanitarian. He also presents a ministerial background and has served in the United Methodist and Unitarian Universalist Churches. As a theological pluralist and interfaith practitioner he is currently an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and a practicing African Traditional Priest-Initiate who has been initiated in both the Akan traditions of Ghana, West Africa and ancient Egyptian religious practice.

Articles and Chapters (2010 - Present)

“Rediscovering the Links between the Earthen Pyramids of West Africa and Ancient Nubia: Restoring William Leo Hansberry’s Vision of Ancient Kush & Sudanic Africa” Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections,(Forthcoming).

“Nubian Ascendancy in the Middle Kingdom: Exploring the Foundations of Kushite Rule During the 2nd Intermediate Period,” Etudes Nubiennes 2018: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference for Nubian Studies in Paris September 10-15, 2018, eds., Vincent Rondot, Marie Millet, Pierre Tallet, Frédéric Payraudeau (Musée du Louvre and Sorbonne Université, Forthcoming).

“Envisioning Africana Religions: Seeking a Distinctive Voice for the Study of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora” Africana Studies and Religion in a Transitional Age: A Transdisciplinary Theological Conversation, eds., Aliou C. Niang, Kenneth Ngwa, Arthur Pressley (Fordham University Press, Forthcoming).

“Déjà vu: The Crisis of the Black Intellectual Again: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Cornel West and the Omission of the Pan-Africanist Tradition” Global Research: Centre for Research on Globalization (January 2018).

“Savior King: Re-reading the Gospels as Greco-Africana Literature & Re-Imaging Christ as Messianic Pharaoh” in Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna Child, Jawanza Clark, ed., (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)

“King Silko and the Roots of Nubian Christianity,” The Kushite World: Proceedings from the 11th International Conference for Meroitic Studies Vienna, 1-4 September 2008, ed. Michael H. Zach Beitrage zur Sudanforschung – Beiheft 9 (2015)

“Reversing Injustice: Combating the Criminality of an Apartheid State” Insights: The Faculty Journal of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary Fall 2014

“Exploding the Myth of the Black Christian Past: What Can the New Black Church Learn From the Funeral Ceremony of Nelson Mandela” The Journal of Pan African Studies Vol.6, no.7, February (2014)

“Kush and Rome on the Egyptian Southern Frontier: Where Barbarians Worshipped as Romans and Romans Worshipped as Barbarians” in Romans, Barbarians, and the Transformation of the Roman World: Cultural Interaction and the Creation of Identity in Late Antiquity (Ashgate: 2011)

Academic Presentations (2010 - Present)

• University of Juba South Sudan Philosophical Society & U.S.-Africa Institute
  • Lecture Presentation: The Seeds of Revolutionary Democracy: African Indigenous Heritage, Philosophy and Governance ( May 21, 2022), University of Juba, South Sudan
• Akrofi-Christaller Institute of Theology, Mission and Culture – Centre for Early African Christianity & The Center for Early African Christianity, New Haven, CT
  • Walls-Oden-Bediako Lecture on Early African Christianity - Lecture Presentation: African Spiritual Dimensions of Medieval Nubian Christianity (April 21, 2022), Akropong, Ghana & New Haven, CT
• Stanford University Archaeology Collections
  • Visiting Lecturer Presentation: Dr. Christina Hodge/Dr. Denise Lim, Museum Cultures: Exhibiting the African Imaginary, “Formulating An Africana Transdisciplinary of History: Nubian, the Nile Valley and Sudanic Africa as Case Study,” (April 12, 2022), Stanford, California
• Candler School of Theology, Emory University
  • Visiting Lecturer Presentation: Dr. Emmanuel Y. Lartey, Spiritual Care in African Religious Traditions, “Harnessing the Force: Nurturing Wellbeing through Trans-Religious African Spiritual Power,” (November 9, 2021), Atlanta, Georgia
• 22nd St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “Reflecting Ancient Egyptian Magic & Coptic Ritual Power: A Consideration of Funerary Prayer Inscriptions in Medieval Christian Nubia” (July 2021), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
• International University of Africa, Dept of Archaeology
  • Lecture-Interview Presentation: “Multiculturalism and Multilingualism in Late Antique Nubia” ( March 2021), Khartoum, Sudan
• Pacific School of Religion and UC Berkeley Archaeological Research Facility
  • Lecture Presentation: “Nubian Ascendancy in the Middle Kingdom: Exploring the Foundations of Kushite Rule During the 2nd Intermediate Period” ( October 2020), Berkeley, CA
• 21st St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “Athanasius and Ancient Egyptian Metaphysics: Forging Christology, Creed and Canon” (August 2020), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA
• San Diego State University – Department of Africana Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “The African Kingdom of Aksum: The Crossroads of the Ancient World” (February 2020), SDSU – San Diego, California
• UC Santa Barbara – Department of Anthropology, Origins and Afterlives of Kush Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “William Leo Hansberry Pioneer of Africana Nubiology: Toward a Transdisciplinary Nexus of Nubian Archaeology, Africana Studies & Africanist Scholarship” (July 2019), UC Santa Barbara – Santa Barbara, California
• UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
  • Lecture Presentation: “Meroitic Kush and Rome: The Politics of Temple Piety and Religious Identities” (October 2018), UCLA – Los Angeles, California
• 8th Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “Building an Africana International Studies Program: Pathways to Forging Global Trade & Foreign Investment in Africa & The Pan African Diaspora.” (September 2018), California State University, Dominguez Hills – Carson, CA
• 14th International Conference for Nubian Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “The Ascendancy of the Kushite Kingdom of Kerma in the Post Middle Kingdom Era: Revisiting the Second Intermediate Period of Ancient Egypt” (September 2018), The Musée du Lo uvre and Sorbonne University, Paris, France
• 42nd Annual Kawaida Institute for Pan African Studies Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “Kawaida Theory and the Conceptualizing of Africana Religions” (July 2018), The African American Culture Center, Los Angeles, California
• 19th St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “Osirian Motifs in the Martyrdom of St. Peter of Alexandria” (July 2018), UCLA, Los Angeles
• Drew University Theological School - The Africana Studies Transdisciplinary Theological Colloquium
  • Lecture Presentation: “Toward an Africana Theory of Religion: Seeking out a Distinctive Disciplinary Schema for the Study of Religions in Africa and the African Diaspora.” (March 24-26, 2017), Madison, New Jersey
• Penn State University College of Communications Office of Multicultural Affairs
  • Lecture Presentation: “From Ferguson to Africa: Dispensing with Race; Reclaiming Black Power.” (February 26, 2015), University Park, PA
• Candler School of Theology, Emory University
  • Visiting Lecture Presentation for doctoral study course: African Moral Philosophy Directed Reading Course (February 18, 2015), Atlanta, Georgia
• Twenty-Sixth Annual Cheik Anta Diop Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “Cheik Anta Diop, Physics and the Consciousness of Sovereign Experience: Toward a New Africana Philosophy and the Re-Emergence of Sovereign Theology” (October 2014) Philadelphia, Penna.
• 13th International Conference for Nubian Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “The Roots of Nubian Christianity Uncovered: A Reconsideration of the Ballana Tombs & the Significance of the Phonen Letter” (September 2014), University of Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
• 16th St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “The Failure of Diplomacy: A Reappraisal of the Nubian Kingdom of the Blemmyes in Besa's Life of Shenoute” (July 2014), UCLA, Los Angeles
• Twenty-Fifth Annual Cheik Anta Diop Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “Cheikh Anta Diop and the Centrality of Ancient Nubia as the Font of Classical Nile Valley Civilization.” (October 2013) Philadelphia, Penna.
• 15th St. Shenouda-UCLA Conference of Coptic Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “Cyriacus The Triumphant Nubian King: Mimesis and the Reinvention of Classical Motifs in the “History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church of Alexandria” (July 2013), UCLA, Los Angeles
• 3rd Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “Health, Justice and Food Sovereignty for Africa & People of African Descent;” “Aquaculture: Pathways to Food Security and Economic Development in Ghana, West Africa.” (October 2012), California State University, Dominguez Hills – Carson, CA
• 2nd Annual Pan African Global Trade and Investment Conference
  • Lecture Presentation: “Historic, Political and Economic Significance of Africa’s Tripartite Free Trade Agreement.” (October 2011), California State University, Dominguez Hills – Carson, CA
• 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies
  • Lecture Presentation: “Africana Nubiology: Examining Classical Sudanese Traditions in West Africa (August 2010), British Museum, London