Dr. Joseph Diémé received his BA and MA in American Studies at Poitiers, France. He received an M.A. in French Literature and Culture at the University of Iowa and his Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies at University of Iowa. His Dissertation project was on the "Inscription of the Black Code in French Literature and its Transplantation in the Post-Colonial Literature of the Francophone Diaspora." In 2012, L'Harmattan published his book De la plantation coloniale aux banlieues: la Négritude dans le discours postcolonial francophone (From the Colonial Plantation to the Inner Cities: Negritude in Francophone Postcolonial Discourse).

A professor in the World Languages and Cultures Department at Humboldt, Dr. Diémé teaches courses in French and Francophone Studies including "African Storytelling," "French Thought and Colonialism," "Citizenship and Identity (ies) in the French Caribbean," "Francophone Popular Music as Political Discourse," "North African Women and Decolonization," and "What is the French Dream?" as well as language classes in French and Wolof. Dr. Diémé also has been involved in Humboldt Study Abroad programs in Morocco and Senegal, and he is the advisor for the Club Francophone.