Brenda F. Berrian is Professor of Africana Studies, English, and Women's Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. From July 1, 1991 until December 31, 1996, she was the Chair of the Department of Africana Studies. Berrian received her B.S. and M.A. in French from Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia (1967 and 1968) and a doctorat de 3e cycle in North American Studies from the Université de Paris III-Nouvelle Sorbonne in Paris, France (1976). Berrian's research interest is on contemporary African American, African, and Caribbean women writers. She has compiled and edited two major bibliographies: Bibliography of Women Writers from the Caribbean (Three Continents, 1989) and Bibliography of Afican Women Writers and Journalists (Three Continents, 1985) and a special issue on Caribbean writers for The Shooting Star Review (Spring 1993). She has also published articles in and compiled bibliographies for various scholarly journals (national and international) on African American, African and Caribbean writers and is a book review editor for MaComère, journal for the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars. Berrian's recent book Awakening Spaces: French Caribbean Popular Songs, Music, and Culture, was published by the University of Chicago Press in June 2000. Her current book project, That's the Way It Is: African American Women in the New South Africa, is a collection of thirty-five oral narratives about African American women's cross-cultural experiences.
