Anta Merritt, Ph.D.

Anta Anthony Merritt is a lecturer in the Africana Studies Department, where he specializes in the area of social sciences. He received his B.A. from SDSU. (magna cum laude in sociology, minor Africana Studies), M.A. from U.C.S.D  (history) and Ph.D. from Union Institute and University (African Studies). His dissertation employs Africentric methodology and field work in Africa, to articulate the repatriation-to-Africa impulse experienced by people of African descent in the diaspora. It is the first scholarly study of the only African repatriation community in continual existence.
Dr. Merritt conducts ongoing field research in Africa and the Caribbean.

Degree institution and year: Ph.D., Union Institute and University; Interdisciplinary Studies of Africa, 2006

Title of Dissertation: Ethiopianism, Africanity and Repatriation: An Africentric Social History of Shashemene Repatriation Community, Ethiopia, 1955-2004.

Areas of specialization: social and political institutions of the African Diaspora, Ethiopian culture, Afro-Caribbean studies

Recent research interest: culture and political ideation in the Rastafarian movement.

Book written: “The Life, Times and Reasonings of Kes Tekle Ab, A Rastafari Elder of the BoboShanti Order: Featuring an Account of the Infamous Coral Garden Rebellion of 1963 Outside of Montego Bay, Jamaica.”

Courses taught:
Political Science: 320, 321, 322, 325,380, 
Sociology: 330, 331, 341;
History:170-A, 170-B, 471-A;
Humanities: 240, 485

Office hours: by appointment