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Executive Editors

Sharon Davies, Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Professor Davies was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and a Notes and Comments Editor of the Columbia Law Review while in law school at Columbia University. After graduation she worked as an Associate Attorney for Steptoe and Johnson in Washington, D.C. and Lord, Day & Lord Barrett Smith in New York City. Professor Davies served for five years as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York, widely thought to be the premier U.S. Attorney's Office in the country. She joined the faculty at Ohio State University in 1995, was awarded tenure in 1999, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2002. Professor Davies' primary research focus is in the area of criminal law and procedure. Her articles have been published in a variety of leading journals including the Michigan Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the Southern California Law Review, and Law and Contemporary Problems. She is also a co-author of a leading treatise on health care fraud, Medicare and Medicaid Fraud and Abuse (West Group 2001-2002). Her book, Rising Road Rising Road: a True Tale of Love, Race, and Religion in America was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. Professor Davies teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure (Police Practices), and Evidence.

Valerie B. Lee is Chief Diversity Officer and Vice Provost, Office of Diversity and Inclusion at The Ohio State University.  A professor and former Chair of the Department of English at Ohio State, as well as a former chair of the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, she is an expert on American Literature, African American Literature, Feminist Studies, and Folklore. Professor Lee is author of:  The Prentice Hall Anthology of African American Women's Literature; Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers: Double-Dutched Readings; Invisible Man's Literary Heritage: Benito Cereno and Moby Dick, and of articles and reviews on African American literature and theory, critical race narratives, and multicultural pedagogy. A former president of the national Association of Departments of English, Professor Lee is co-editor of the book series, Black Performance and Cultural Criticism. She is a recipient of the Ohio State Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award and also the Ohio State Distinguished Service Award. Very interdisciplinary, Professor Lee holds courtesy appointments in six academic units. 

Editor-in-Chief

Andrew Grant-Thomas is Deputy Director of the Kirwan Institute. Working with the Executive Director, Dr. Grant-Thomas oversees the Institute’s U.S. programming and internal operations. He came to Kirwan in February 2006 from the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, where he was a senior research associate. At the Civil Rights Project he directed the Color Lines Conference: Segregation and Integration in America’s Present and Future, and managed a range of policy-oriented projects that included work on the nature of structural racism, an examination of the impact of federal policy on housing opportunities for racial minorities, an exploration of the racial justice dimensions of transportation policy, and an internal evaluation of a community support advocacy initiative. He received his B.A. in Literature from Yale University, his M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago.

Associate Editors

Elsadig Elsheikh joined the staff of the Kirwan Institute in 2008, before coming to the Institute, Elsadig worked with various grassroots and advocacy organizations in the fields of Internal Displaced Persons, Indigenous population, human rights, immigration, anti-racism, and social justice in Sudan, Greece, Colombia, and the United States. Elsadig was a fellow of the 2009 Human Rights Advocates Program at the Institute of the study of human rights at Columbia University. He received his MA (2008) in social justice & sustainable development and a graduate diploma (2007) in conflict transformation across cultures both from the SIT Graduate Institute. In 2005, he received his B.A. Dual major in political science & international studies from the Ohio State University, and prior to that he studied international relations at Panteion University in Athens, Greece.

Tiffani Clyburn is the Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion and the Coordinator for the Program for Arts and Humanities Development at The Ohio State University.  Prior to beginning her work with the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Tiffani completed her master’s degree in English at Ohio State and is currently completing her PhD in English as well.  Her areas of interest include African American Literature 1900-Present, Critical Race Theory, and Gender and Sexuality Studies.  Her dissertation: Her Fleece was White as Snow: African American Literary Counter-Narratives in the ‘Post-Racial’ era” focuses on the ways in which African American authors of the Post-Civil Rights era use the law as a trope to engage and ultimately “counter” the myth of a color-blind America that emerged in the late 1960s.

Managing Editor

Leslie Birdwell Shortlidge
Leslie Shortlidge comes to the Kirwan Institute with a varied background in writing, publishing, and editing. A native of Michigan, Leslie received both her BA and MA from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, where she also worked as an editorial assistant for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Leslie has written on a wide variety of subjects as a freelancer for various publications and projects. She has written advertising and promotional copy, technical copy, educational materials, study guides, feature stories on lifestyle and living topics, and archaeology for both adult and juvenile audiences. Leslie edited a book review journal for a nonprofit literary organization in Central Ohio before joining Kirwan.