Edmund Timothy Moore MFA, is an Emeritus Associate Professor from the
Department of Pan African Studies at Kent State University. He has taught courses in
Traditional African and African American historic, artistic and cultural experiences
throughout the Pan African Diaspora for 37 years. For the last 12 years, he also
served as the Associate Dean for Advising and Undergraduate Student Affairs in the
College of Arts & Sciences.
Upon graduation as an Art major from Glenville High School in Cleveland Ohio, he
became a Printing Press Operator/Trainee with the Addresograph Multigraph
Corporation, before he came to Kent State in the fall of 1969. There, he majored in
Graphic Design, now called Visual Communication Design, which blended his artistic
and printing expertise. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts, in 1973, a Master of Arts
in 1977, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1983.
His research and creative interests concern Hierography, the sacred connections
within the Communication Continuum. These range from the spoken word, as well
as printed, artistic, and electronic words and images, and their implications for the
Media. He has taught and lectured on this topic and his research is concerned with
their impact on our thoughts, attitudes and behaviors in society. His other research
involves a working manuscript entitled HumanCentricity, which he has lectured on
for more than two decades, as a direct result of what he learned and taught in Pan
African Studies.
He has served as a mentor to all students and in more recent years, with a particular
focus on African American Males. From 2007-2009, he was a Consultant and a
Cultural Competency teacher-facilitator with the Governor’s Initiative for Increasing
the Graduation Rate, with the Akron High Schools which targeted 9th grade African
American Males, toward “Closing the Achievement Gap.” In 2010-11, he was
involved with a continuation of this program in the Juvenile Correctional Facilities
throughout Ohio.
In 1993, he became the first African American at Kent State, to receive the Alumni
Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He was selected to Who’s Who, Among
American Teachers for 1996 and 1998. He has received numerous recognitions for
Outstanding Teaching and the 2006 Distinguished Honors Faculty Award.
In 2009, he received the Service to commission Award for the Liberal Arts Advisors
Commission of the National Academic Advising Association and several awards for
his contributions to the university at the time of his retirement at the end of 2010.
He has also given numerous lectures, presentations, and workshops on the topics of
African and African American stereotypes in the media, and has consulted on issues
relating to Human Diversity, as well as Teacher and Employee Training in Cultural
Competency, to various community and business organizations throughout the
United States. His primary focus has always been the importance of education,
especially his “Protecting your GPA” initiative, to students, parents and schools.
Among the courses he taught, the primary ones related to his Hierographic
background were, The Symposium on Visual Communications, which became
Oral and Visual Awareness. This course taught students the art of calligraphy, and
the basics of black and white photography. They were able to take their ideas and
photographs that they took and combine them onto visual results that they created
themselves. They also studied the basic elements of the African and African
American Oral Tradition and of the media, such as spoken and written words,
photography, cinematography, television, advertising, etc., and their impact on our
thoughts and behavior.
Introduction to the African Arts
KSU students were exposed to all of the traditional forms of artistic, musical and
creative cultural expressions of various African cultures, past and present. This
course exposed them to the reasons for the existence of the traditional sculptures,
masks, music, instruments, dance, poetic and historical/philosophical/spiritual
interconnections between the African cultures. There were no other courses like
this on the campus. Later, the Art History department started teaching a related
course, but the one that was taught in Pan African Studies still exists.
African American Artists
Students learned about the historical and cultural development of the Artistic
traditions that were transplanted from Africa to the Americas. The growth and
evolution of the artistic and cultural continuum, as well as the people who kept
them alive in the so-called New World. The successes and the obstacles they faced
in creating their new forms of expression from the Musico/linguistic Rap Tradition,
now called Hip Hop, through painting, sculpture, dance, theatre, and much more.
Still being taught in Pan African Studies.
Interpreting the Black Experience, Parts 1 & 2
Provided chronological in-depth exploration and analysis for all students of the
historical forces, factors and people that shaped the development of Mankind since
our beginnings. Newly discovered factual information reveals the greatness of the
African past, leading to internal and external cultural transformations of the
traditional African Way of Life. The recorded events and circumstances leading to
the creation of the African diaspora and New world enslavement, through to
Abolition, and efforts of institution building by various Black communities. These
occurred during the periods of Reconstruction/Redemption, the Great Migration up
to the Civil Rights/Black Consciousness Movement and the Self Determination
momentum up to the present day. These two courses were taught as Honors
Courses from 1993, until his retirement in 2010.