At Indiana University, Kafi Kumasi was a Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Fellow through a partnership between the School of Education and the School of Library and Information Science. Her dissertation research, “Seeing White in Black: Examining Racial Identity Among African American Adolescents Through a Culturally Centered Book Club,” was a sociolinguistic ethnographic study that examined racial identity among thirteen African American middle and high school students inside a book club that centered on exploring Black culture and experiences through young adult novels. She was also the principal investigator on a research project within the Indiana School of Library and Information Science. "Stories We Tell: Culture, Race, and Youth Services in the LIS Curriculum," details her qualitative pilot study exploring how a group of pre-service librarians think about multicultural education as it relates to their role serving ethnically diverse youth in library settings. Kumasi also received an IMLS-funded scholarship to obtain her MLIS at Wayne State, while working as a school media specialist, through a partnership between the former Library and Information Science Program and the Detroit Public Schools. Prior to entering graduate school, she was a high school English teacher at Southeastern High School of Technology in Detroit.

• B.S. in Education from the University of Michigan, 1999
• MLIS from Wayne State University, 2003
• Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University, 2008

2011 ALISE Best Conference Paper Award

2009 National Center for Institutional Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowship (Semi-Finalist)

2006 Laura Bush 21^st Century Librarian Fellow

2006 NCTE Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color Fellow

School Library Media; Urban Libraries and Education; Multicultural Education; Issues and Trends in Children’s and Young Adult Literature; Social and Cultural approaches to Adolescent Literacy Development.

School Librarianship

Urban Education

Research Methods

Multicultural Issues

Kumasi, K.D., Charbonneau, D.H., & Walster, D.E. (Exp Spring/Summer 2013). Theory talk in the library science scholarly literature: An exploratory analysis. Library & Information Science Research. 

Kumasi, K. & Hill, R. F. (March 2013). Examining the hidden ideologies within cultural competence discourses among library and information science students: Implications for school library pedagogy. School Libraries Worldwide, 19 (1), 128-139.

Kumasi, K. (Exp June 2013).  LIS discourses on youth of color: A critical race perspective. In Bernier, A. (Ed) Transforming Young Adult Services: A reader for our age (10 pp). Neal Schuman.

Hughes, Hassell, S., Kumasi, K. Rawson, C. Hitson, A. ( Sept 2012). Building a bridge to literacy for African American male youth: A call to action for the library community. [ Federal Grant Report ] Retrieved from http://sils.unc.edu/sites/default/files/news/Sandra%20hughes-hassel%20projectFinal.pdf

Kumasi, K. (May/June, 2012). Roses in the concrete. A critical race perspective on urban youth and libraries. Knowledge Quest, 40 (5), pp. 32-37. 

Kumasi, K. (March 2012). Double consciousness: The context and consequences of Black identity in the Obama Era. In Thomas, E.E. & Tatum S.R. (Eds.) Reading African American Experiences in the Obama era: Theory, advocacy, and action (pp 51-67) New York: Peter Lang; Black Studies and Critical Thinking Imprint.

Franklin Hill, R. & Kumasi, K. (December 2011). Bridging the gaps: Measuring cultural competence among future school library and youth services professionals [electronic resource]. School Library Media Research, 14, 16 pp print. 

Kumasi, K. (November 2011). The impact of libraries on young adults: Toward a critical research agenda [electronic resource]. The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 2 (1) 4 pp print.

Kumasi, K. & Franklin Hill, R. (October 2011). Are we there yet? Results of a gap analysis to measure LIS students' prior knowledge and actual learning of cultural competence concepts. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 52 (4). 251-264. Paper Received 2011 ALISE Best Conference Paper Award.

 Carter, S. & Kumasi, K. (April 2011). Double reading: Young Black scholars responding to whiteness in a community literacy program. In Kinloch, V. (Ed). Urban Literacies: Critical Perspectives on Language, Learning, and Community (pp72-90). New York: Teachers College Press.

Kumasi, K. (Mar 2011).Critical race theory and education: Mapping a legacy of scholarship and activism. In Levinson, B. A.U. (Ed). Beyond Critique: Critical Social Theories and Education (pp 196-219). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

Kumasi, K. ( November 2010). Cultural inquiry: A framework for engaging youth of color in the library[electronic resource]. The Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults, 1(1). 8 pp print

Kumasi, K. (April 2010). Urban public school libraries and educational reform: The case of the Detroit Public Schools[electronic resource]. Urban Library Journal, 16 (1). 15pp print

Kumasi, K. (2008) Seeing White in Black: Examining racial identity among African American adolescents in a culturally centered book club. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, United States -- Indiana. Retrieved May 9, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text.(Publication No. AAT 3344582).

Carter, S., Damico, J. and Kumasi, K. (2008). The time is now!: Talking with Black youth about college. Voices from the Middle, 16(2),47-53.

Kumasi-Johnson (2007) Critical Inquiry: Library Media Specialists as Change Agents. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 24(7). 42-45.

Cultural Competence and Library and Information Science Education