Leonard Gadzekpo | Humanities and Social Sciences | SIU

Dr. Leonard Kodzo Gadzekpo was born in Cote d'Ivoire and grew up in Ghana. He got his first degree from the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana, and taught in Ghana and Nigeria. He spent four years in Germany as an artist working on religious art pieces for the St. Stepanus Katholische Gemeinde in Oldenburg and studied at Universitaet Oldenburg and Salzburg Universitaet, Austria. From 1990 to 1997 he did graduate studies at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio and earned a M.A. in German, a M.F.A. in Painting and a Ph.D. in American Culture Studies. 

Before coming to SIU Carbondale, he was Assistant Professor of Art and Interdisciplinary Studies at University of Maine, Orono, Maine. As an artist he has been exhibiting in Africa, Europe, and America. He designed nine stained-glass windows for the Warren A. M. E. Church, Toledo, Ohio, completed several triptychs and altar-pieces for the St. Stephanus Katholische Gemeinde, Oldenburg, Germany, and a mural for the St. Thomas Catholic Church at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. He is presently working on a series of paintings dealing with the Africana experience in the world. His writing and research focus on comparative study of Africana history and culture.