Martin JaptokMartin Japtok has an M.A. in American Studies from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Davis. He has been an English instructor since 1988 and has taught both English and Afrian American Studies at UC Davis, West Virginia State University, and Palomar College. At Palomar College, where he has worked since 2004, he has served as Professional Development Coordinator and as a member of the Basic Skills Initiative. In 2006, he received the Palomar College Research Award. He is currently on the Executive Board of the Palomar Faculty Federation. While at West Virginia State University, he was elected Faculty of the Year by the students for three consecutive years (2000-2003). In addition to having published essays in scholarly journals and books, he is the author of Growing Up Ethnic: Nationalism, and the Bildungsroman in African American and Jewish American Fiction (2005), and the editor of Postcolonial Perspectives on Women Writers from Africa, the Caribbean, and the U.S. (2003), and, with Rafiki Jenkins, of Black Authenticity/”Real” Blackness: Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture (2011). He also serves as associate editor at Nomos Review, a literary journal. Read More Read Less