Dr. Robert Hanserd Associate Professor of History at coordinator of the Black Word Studies Minor at Columbia College Chicago. He is author of Identity, Spirit, and Freedom in the Atlantic World: The Gold Coast and the African Diaspora (Routledge, 2019) and co-author of 500 African Voices: A Catalog of Published Narratives by Africans Enslaved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1586–1936 (American Philosophical Society Press, 2023) and has published widely in journals including Atlantic Studies: Global Currents and the SAA Archaeological Record. Dr. Hanserd has designed and directed study abroad programs in Ghana, organized international conference panels across four continents, and contributed to major public humanities initiatives at institutions including the Field Museum, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. His multimedia work — spanning documentary film, radio, podcast, and installation — extends his scholarship into public and creative spaces, most recently through the feature film Sasraku, filmed in Ghana forthcoming in 2026.