Dr. Kashama
Mulamba was recently appointed the new chair of the Department of English and
Modern Languages at Olivet Nazarene University. Dr. Mulamba has been a
professor at Olivet since 1997, and is excited to serve in this new capacity.
A specialist in sociolinguistics, pragmatics, language and culture, Dr. Mulamba
is fluent in English, French, Ciluba, Lingala, nearly fluent in Swahili and
Kisonge, and can read and translate Latin.
“I am impressed with Dr. Mulamba’s great passion and energy about the future of
the department as a whole. In fact, he is already working to develop new ways
to integrate different languages and cultures into the life of Olivet,” said
Dr. Janna McLean, dean of Olivet’s College of Arts and Sciences. “As a
linguist and one for whom English is a second language, he has expertise in
both main areas of EML.”
An internationally recognized scholar, Dr. Mulamba has been published in Zaire,
his homeland, in such journals as the “Zaire English Teachers Review” and “Les
Cahiers de l'I.S.P.-Gombe,” as well as in the “Bulletin de Liaison” in Gabon.
In addition, Dr.
Mulamba has received such professional awards and recognition as the British
Council Scholarship from Moray House College of Education in Scotland and a
Fulbright Hays Scholarship from Ball State University. He also received both
doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships from the Department of English at Ball
State University, among other honors.
His many research
grants include one from the Canadian Government to study the "Profile of
the Zairean Secondary School Student" in 1974. He also received a
round-trip Fulbright Travel Grant between the United States and Zaire to
perform "A Cross-linguistic Study of Speech Act Performance by
Multilingual Speakers in Zaire" in 1988-89.
“Besides Dr. Mulamba’s long experience and highly credible professional
stature, he is a fascinating person with a compelling story of immigration,
advanced education, upward mobility, salvation, and churchmanship,” notes Dr.
Gregg Chenoweth, vice president for academic affairs. “This
personal-professional brew mixes very well around his ambition for the
department. Since English and Modern Languages touches every ONU student,
many hundreds more will come under his direct influence in the classroom, but
thousands more indirectly as he shepherds colleagues, curricula, service, and
scholarship, and is a boundary-spanner to various other University units across
campus.”
Dr. Mulamba and
his wife, Madolie, are the parents of five children. Four — Gentille, Paty,
Nana, and Oeuvre — live in the Midwest, and the eldest, Godee, lives in the
Congo in Africa.