Professor receives Fulbright award to study indigenous medicinal uses of mangrove palm fruit in Guyana

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Dr. Geoffrey Giddings, a professor of History and Africana Studies at Central State University, has received a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to study global food and environmental justice in Guyana, South America, during the 2024-2025 academic year.

The award was recently announced by the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.  

Giddings will work with the Imbotero Research Center, a part of the University of Guyana, to research access to Warrau communities in the Barima-Waini or Guyana’s administrative Region One.

The investigation will focus on expressed medicinal uses of the mangrove palm fruit as a window into the foodways of indigenous Guyanese and those who live in rural areas.

Born in Guyana, Giddings emigrated to the United States as 13 years old. He attended high school in Brooklyn, New York, before earning a Bachelor of Arts in African and Afro-American Studies, with a minor in Spanish, from Brandeis University. He also spent one semester as a transient student at Morehouse College and later earned his Master of Arts and Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University.  

Giddings has conducted and published research on U.S. Black Power-era intellectual history, pan-African cultures, and Guyanese cuisine culture. 

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“I have been engaged intellectually and personally in Guyana for several years,” Giddings wrote in his project statement titled “Healing Powers of the Mangrove Palm Fruit: A Foodways View of the Mangrove Forest.”  

“My Central State University interdisciplinary study abroad course to Guyana in 2016, 2017, and 2018 spurred my sustained interest in the cultural significance of foodways and food systems, which yielded a few related publications and now a 2024-2024 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Research Grant,” he said. “I aim to grow our understanding of contemporary Guyanese foodways, enhance my pedagogy as an online teaching professor, and strengthen scholarly bridges between the United States and Guyana.”  

Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators, and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. Fulbright Scholars engage in cutting-edge research and expand their professional networks, often continuing research collaborations started abroad and laying the groundwork for forging future partnerships between institutions. Upon returning to their home countries, institutions, labs, and classrooms, they share their stories and often become active supporters of international exchange, inviting foreign scholars to campus and encouraging colleagues and students to go abroad.  

“My research helps bring Guyanese voices and insights to global food and environmentally related discourses,” Giddings said.

“The Imbotero Research Center is uniquely positioned to help facilitate my investigation of food practices within a Warrau community, which can reveal even more about this culture’s ingenuity and creativity relative to its uses of food for medicine, sustenance, as well as cultural meaning.”  

Giddings said he is mindful to be minimally intrusive on informants’ lives.  

“I hope to be embedded (seamlessly as possible) into a Warrau community as a trusted, if transient, member of the community. To achieve such trust, I expect to play some useful role in the community, while employing and working with a local ‘citizen scientist’ who would assist my efforts at data collection and especially in connecting with appropriate persons. To that end, and if possible, I hope to lodge at the home of a local community member, for optimal exposure to as many food practices, and organic observations of people’s use, perceptions and knowledge of medicinal foods.” 

Since 2006, Giddings has held various academic and leadership roles at CSU, including associate and full professor of History, chairperson of the Humanities Department, and Honors Program director. Giddings is passionate about teaching and enjoys reading historical novels, running, and gardening in his free time.  

Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has provided over 400,000 talented and accomplished students, scholars, teachers, artists, and professionals of all backgrounds with the opportunity to study, teach, and conduct research abroad. Fulbrighters exchange ideas, build people-to-people connections, and work to address complex global challenges. Notable Fulbrighters include 62 Nobel Laureates, 89 Pulitzer Prize winners, 80 MacArthur Fellows, 41 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. 

Over 800 individuals teach or conduct research abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program annually. In addition, over 2,000 Fulbright U.S. Student Program participants — recent college graduates, graduate students, and early career professionals — participate in study/research exchanges or as English teaching assistants in local schools abroad each year. 

Central State University is proud to have Giddings as part of this esteemed program and looks forward to him sharing his experiences and research with the academic world and students, faculty, and staff at CSU upon his return. 

About Fulbright 

Fulbright is a program of the U.S. Department of State, with funding provided by the U.S. Government. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the Program, which operates in over 160 countries worldwide.  

In the United States, the Institute of International Education implements the Fulbright U.S. Student and U.S. Scholar Programs on behalf of the U.S. Department of State.  For more information about the Fulbright Program, visit https://fulbrightprogram.org.