Daphne W. Ntiri
Hall of Fame Class of 2022
Dr. Daphne W. Ntiri is a Distinguished Service Professor at Wayne State University. Her work is notable for its blend of high-caliber scholarship with community participation and service, epitomizing the goals of engagement that are the hallmarks of adult education. Her remarkable career which spans over three decades is marked by countless accolades.
Prof. Ntiri has established an integrated research agenda that studies, from the black perspective, adult education and literacy, gender and feminist/womanist frameworks and trends and the marginalized adult learner in a globalizing world. These interdisciplinary themes are captured in over 40 publications in national and leading international journals. Her latest book, Literacy as gendered discourse: Engaging the voices of women in global societies studies the intersection of gender inequality and literacy. The impact of her scholarship may be gauged from both national and international presentations to countless institutions of higher education including universities of Nanjing, China; Mumbai, India; Oriente, Cuba; Nsukka, Nigeria; Athens, Greece; Kirkunummi, Finland; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Harare, Zimbabwe; Cape Town, South Africa and Nanterre, France.
Ntiri served as a consultant to UNESCO in field assignments in Dakar, Senegal (BREDA) pioneering the Regional Program to eradicate illiteracy in Africa by the year 2000 and at the Teacher Training College in Kismayo, Somalia where she collaborated on the creation of a blueprint for the establishment of a rural college for women in an Islamic society. She was an active participant in UNESCO-CONFITEA (V & VI) conferences in Hamburg and Bangkok. As an Invited Visiting Scholar to the Centre for Gender Research, University of Uppsala, Sweden, she explored the subject of literacy, race and gender following the growing presence of African immigrant women in Sweden’s transforming landscape. She earned a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and was an IFESH Visiting Scholar to the University of Djibouti, Djibouti. She was honored with the Wayne State University Career Development Chair Award early in her career and was also venerated with the President’s and College Excellence teaching awards.
Prof. Ntiri has developed a model of sustainable academic units at the University - WSU Another Chance and community-based organizations featuring the City of Detroit Literacy Task Force and the Detroit Literacy Coalition, all of which she spearheaded with over $6.8 million she secured from federal, state and foundation sources to address the challenges of a city burdened with over 47% adult functional illiteracy. For her commitment to adult literacy education and women’s empowerment, she has been lauded with honors to include, the Arthur L. Johnson Individual Community Leadership Award, the Alumni Faculty Service Award, the Women of Wayne Award, the Pearls of Hope Foundation - Woman in Education Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Michigan State Department of Education.
Dr. Ntiri is a member of the Association of American Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE). She served on its Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE) Executive Board and as Chair and Co-Chair of the CPAE Women’s Research SIG. She is a consulting editor and reviewer for Adult Education Quarterly, Journal of Research and practice in Adult Literacy, Adult Learning Journal and The Journal of Negro Education. She is a founding member of Dialogues for Social Justice journal.
After a predoctoral fellowship on gender and labor practices of anglophone Africa at the International Institute for Labor Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, Ntiri earned her Ph.D. in Adult and Continuing Education from Michigan State University. She earned a Bachelor’s degree from Fourah Bay College, the University of Sierra Leone. She is currently a Professor in the Department of African American Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.