Rasheed J. Atwater, a doctoral student in Africology, has been awarded the 2022 Sage Molefi Kete Asante Award, the top graduate prize in Africology at Temple University. Created in honor of Molefi Kete Asante, the founder of the Journal of Black Studies, by Sage Publications, one of the nation’s largest social science publishers, the prize is made possible by a $100,000 endowment to the College of Liberal Arts for the Department of Africology and African American Studies. Dr. Asante says, “The Sage Molefi Kete Asante Award recognizes the top student in the department based on grades, scholarship, and professional commitment.” 

Chosen by a faculty committee designated by Dr. Asante, the award is one of several given to top students in the graduate program which has produced more leaders in the field than all other doctoral programs in African American Studies combined. Temple’s graduates in Africology have headed programs at the University of Pittsburgh, Kent State University, University of Alabama, San Francisco State University, San Diego State University, University of Wyoming, University of California, Santa Barbara, Princeton, American University, Cheyney University, Drexel University, Lincoln University, and many other institutions with African American Studies programs. Atwater received his Masters in Africology from Eastern Michigan University’s Department of Africology headed by Temple graduate Dr. Victor Okafor, who is the author of the book, Introduction to Africology. Rasheed’s mentor at Eastern Michigan, the late Ana Monteiro-Ferreira, author of prize-winning book, The Demise of the Inhuman, was also a graduate of Temple’s department.