BA in Individualized Studies Program
Since being initiated into a priesthood of Khemet (ancient Egypt), I am also called by the name Aih Djehuti Herukhuti Khepera Ra Temu Seti Amen. I prefer that you refer to me by the name Herukhuti (pronounced heh-ROO-koo-TEE). I am honored to be a member of the Goddard community and welcome (com)passionate engagement. I am a social theorist, sociologist/anthropologist, sexologist, educator, cultural animator, shaman, artist, author, and bondage/domination/submission/sadomasochism (BDSM) practitioner. For me, education—at its best—is a liberatory practice. It is the cultivation of human potential for personal and community development. As an educator, my role is to hold sacred space for mystery, the miraculous, and meaning to unfold. I believe when they unfold, learning occurs for all involved.
Oftentimes in the West (United States, Canada, Western Europe, and Australia) we think of such learning as sweet, polite, clean, manicured, and polished. Because of my background in African ritual, I have come to know that mystery, the miraculous, and meaning can often appear ugly, smell funky, and sound profane. I invite and appreciate multiple forms of learning into my learning environments. To that end, I am currently involved in two epistemological movements: Decolonizing and Reconstructing Epistemologies, Methodologies, and Practices (DRE) & Afrocentric, Decolonizing Queer Theory (ADQT).
While a doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University, a student-colleague, Norma Harris, and I started a conversation within the School of Human and Organization Development that spread across the university as a movement to create a framework for the work of scholar-practitioners that is guided by principles of social and ecological justice as well as a deep appreciation of “Indigenous Knowledge and Wisdom.” That effort is now called DRE.
Through the use of Sensual Yoga (a partnered nude-practice of hatha and kundalini yogas), Theatre of the Oppressed (a Brazilian-originating form of popular education using theatre techniques), and African ritual (based upon the Dagara and Khemet mystery systems) in my doctoral dissertation study, Our bodies, our wisdom: Engaging Black men who experience same-sex desire in Afrocentric ritual, embodied epistemology, and collaborative inquiry, I was led to conceive ADQT as a hybrid practice of scholarship and activism that borrows from Afrocentric Thought, Black Feminist Thought, and Queer Theory. ADQT is a way of understanding how Blackness and queerness are culturally, spiritually, and sexually interconnected as sources of liberatory power.
In 1998, I founded Black Funk: The Center for Culture, Sexuality, and Spiritual, a sexual cultural center dedicated to providing a space for the exhibition and exploration of sensual awareness, sexual consciousness, erotic power, and pleasure. Black Funk is a gathering place for sexually liberated people of color to express themselves and enjoy erotic events, demonstrations, and sexuality-related classes. In 2004, Black Funk launched the popular, provocative web site http://www.blackfunk.org, providing users with an online source for news, information, and community on topics related to culture, sexuality, and spirituality from a conscious, funky perspective.
Believe it or not, I am also a former high school teacher and youth theatre director. I taught humanities/social studies and theatre at the School of the Future, New York City in the mid-late 90s. My theatrical work with students led to productions at the first New York International Fringe Theatre Festival.
I have been writing poetry for about twenty years and stage plays and social/cultural criticism for the last 10 years. My writing has appeared in Arise Magazine, Ma-Ka: Diasporic Juks—Contemporary Writings by Queers of African Descent, African Voices, Women In The Life: The Premier Lesbian Website and Monthly, and Think Again as well as in various academic journals and publications. My latest book, Conjuring Black Funk: Notes on Culture, Sexuality, and Spirituality, Volume I (Vintage Entity Press), is a fiery collection of essays, poetry, and experimental writing.
My research and teaching interests include: embodiment & consciousness, (queer) phenomenology, African culture, cosmology, ritual, & spirituality, Trickster mythology, Diasporic studies, sex & sexuality, sexual scripts theory, “the uses of the erotic as power,” culturally-relevant HIV education, chaos theory & complexity, cultural studies, human development, social change, Black youth activism of the 1960s, Black Feminist Thought, Afrocentric Thought, Black Queer Theory, performance & performativity, Theatre of the Oppressed, European male supremacy & European cultural hegemony, epistemology, qualitative research methods (particularly narrative inquiry, ethnographic inquiry, interviewing, and focus group), participatory action research & collaborative inquiry, Indigenous Knowledge Studies, Afrocentric, Decolonizing Queer Theory, and Decolonizing and Reconstructing Epistemologies, Methodologies, & Practices, organization development, and systems thinking.
While those are my immediate interests, I am intrigued by opportunities to work with students in areas for which I have a limited background but which provide great co-learning experiences. I enjoy serving as companion and critical friend to students working on areas that are unfamiliar to both of us.
Educational Background: I hold degrees in psychology and political science from the University of Southern California, an Master of Education degree in curriculum and instruction from Lesley University with a specialization in conflict resolution and peaceable schools, and a PhD in human and organizational systems from Fielding Graduate University with a concentration in transformative learning for social justice and specialization in sexuality and cross-cultural studies of knowledge systems. Initiated into the Shrine of Amen Ra at the age of 14 by Khafra Ndongo Amen, I studied Mdu Neter (hieroglyphics), Khemet cosmology & mysticism, Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Gong, and Hatha Yoga as well as mysticism with the late Sufi master Genghis Nor and Dagara shamanism and cosmology with Dr. Malidoma Somè.
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Hameed S. (Herukhuti) Williams, M.Ed, Ph.D