Dr. Gillian Richards-Greaves
Gillian Richards-Greaves is an associate professor, researcher, ethnomusicologist, music educator, author, mother, and much more. She hails from the town of Linden, in Guyana, South America. Her educational journey began at Christianburg nursery and primary schools, then she attended McKenzie High School where in her later years as a senior, she was in specific science classes 4S1 and 5S1. While at McKenzie High, she also sang in the school’s award-winning choir and actively participated in sports.
During Gillian’s high school years, she was very athletic and competed at the 1988 National games in four events including shotput and discus in the under 17 and open categories. She also wrote Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) and completed McKenzie High School in 1988. She had planned to take additional subjects the following year and attend 6th form; however, in 1989, she migrated to the United Stated.
Upon migration, although Gillian completed high school in Guyana, she reenrolled in high school because she was not yet 17 years old. She attended Prospect Heights High School in Brooklyn, New York where she focused on Math and Science. In 1990, she graduated from high school for the second time. This time with honors and as a member of National Honor Society/Arista.
Following her graduation from Prospect Heights High School, Gillian worked for a year before beginning her studies in Electrical Engineering at New York City College of Technology formerly, New York City Tech. However, before she could graduate from New York City Tech, she had to take a sabbatical to work and earn money to pay for college. What should have been a semester turned into six barren years, academically speaking.
During her sabbatical from New York City Tech, Gillian worked several jobs, including teacher’s aide, home health aide, legal secretary, got married and became a mother. She also attended and graduated as the Valedictorian from Berean Bible College. Even though she was frustrated by not being able to pursue her academic career, she found satisfaction from serving her community in religious and secular settings. She was a member of the Full Gospel Assembly Church in Brooklyn where she taught Sunday School, served as the Youth Ministries’ President, and engaged in Prison Ministry outreach.
During her early motherhood months, Gillian enrolled in CUNY/Hunter College to continue her pursuit of combined degrees: a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Music Education with a minor in Mathematics. It should be noted that she completed Language Arts & Specialty Teaching (LAST) and Assessment of Teaching Skills-Written New York State teaching certifications before graduating from Hunter College in 2004, where she earned several awards and honors. Most notably, she won the Ronald McNair Fellowship to pursue her doctoral study.
While attending CUNY/Hunter college, Gillian worked as a teacher’s aide at a daycare center. Following this, she worked at half-way house that also addressed mental health issues. Later in her studies, she was a student-teacher for one semester.
In 2004, Gillian and family, now with the inclusion of two young sons, relocated to Bloomington, Indiana in pursuit of a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology, the study of music in culture and music as culture. In the second year of graduate study at Indiana University, she added a second doctoral degree in Anthropology to her course of study. She figured that the disciplines were complimentary, and she would be more marketable with two Ph.Ds. instead of one.
Gillian has conducted research on Guyana’s Emancipation Day, the cultural intersections between Africa, the Caribbean, the Gullah-Geechee of the southern United States, and the impact of African video films (especially from Nollywood) on African-Guyanese identities. In conducting her research of Kweh-Kweh, she was a regular attendee at the Guyana Cultural Association of New York Inc.’s annual Kweh-Kweh Night, held the Friday before Labor Day. Her attendance to this event allowed her the opportunity to interview members of the Kweh- Kweh Ensemble. Hence, the information researched has been an integral part of her dissertation that focused on the role of the African-Guyanese Kweh-Kweh ritual in African-Guyanese identity negotiations in Guyana and rediasporization, the creation of a diaspora’s diaspora in New York City.
Gillian drew on her research data to publish her book titled Rediasporization: African-Guyanese Kweh-Kweh. She is currently completing a book on Nollywood’s impact in Guyana, which is under contract with Lexington Books.
Since the fall of 2014, Gillian has been an associate professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Geography at Coastal Carolina University. She has taught courses that focus on the musical, cultural, linguistic, and ritual expressions of the African Diaspora, with emphasis on the connections between Africa, the Caribbean and the United States. She also played a pivotal role in the creation of the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah, and African Diaspora Studies, the African Diaspora Studies minor, and the Caribbean and Latin American Studies minor. She has also co-led study abroad programs to Ghana and the twin island of Trinidad & Tobago. She continues to share her research and expertise as a presenter at conferences and lecturer in the academic and local communities. She also serves as the Minority Representative for the American Anthropological Association (AAA).
Gillian’s ultimate goal in life is to continue playing a role in the development of future generations, particularly through educational endeavors and the arts. She has recently completed her first children’s book on the history, culture, and function of black hair, which will be published in January 2021.