Cherif Saloum Diatta

Cherif Saloum Diatta joined the Stone Center in 2009 as a Fulbright Student Fellow and earned his Ph.D. degree in May 2015. He is a native of Dakar, Senegal, and holds both a B.A. and an M.A. in English as well as a pre-doctoral diploma on Caribbean literature. His pre-doctoral thesis was entitled “Creoleness in Caribbean Literature: The Examples of Dereck Walcott’s Dream on Monkey Mountain and Patrick Chamoiseau’s Solibo Magnificient.” In November of 2007, he received a commendation from the Senegal Head of State for his distinguished scholarship at Cheikh Anta Diop Dakar University. He received his high school teacher training degree in 2008 and has taught at both the Djignabo High School of Ziguinchor and at the University of Ziguinchor in Senegal. Cherif’s research interests include Caribbean literature, African Diaspora studies, gender, creoleness, identity and post-colonialism. In 2013, Cherif received the Stone Center Summer Research Grant, and spent six weeks in Trinidad doing research for his dissertation on Earl Lovelace's literary work. He interviewed Lovelace himself and Prof. Funso Aiyejina, the authority on Lovelace. Cherif’s dissertation was entitled, 'Nation and Diaspora: Identity and Community Politics in the Fiction of Earl Lovelace.' From 2010 to 2013, Cherif presented research papers at several conferences: in Jamaica (the Second International Maroon Conference in Portland), at Tulane University (New Orleans), at the University of Indiana (Bloomington), and at the University of Wisconsin (Stevens Point). In September 27, 2013, Cherif received the NCCLA Student Research Award for his paper, 'Masks of Resistance: Mimicry and Cultural Survival in Earl Lovelace's The Wine of Astonishment” during the North Central Council for Latin Americanists (NCCLA) conference at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In November 2, 2013, Cherif coordinated the Stone Center Summer Research Grant Symposium.