African & African-American Studies
Faculty
Learn more about the Africa & African-American Studies program faculty, which draws from a wide variety of academic departments and is committed to an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the people, institutions, and concerns linking African diaspora.
Matthew Nichter, PhD
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of Africa and African-American Studies
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 111
T. 407.646.2286
BA, Brown University
MS, University of Wisconsin - Madison
PhD, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Matthew Nichter is a historical sociologist who teaches courses on inequality and social movements. His research focuses on the relationship between the African-American freedom struggle, labor unions, and the socialist movement. Read his article "Did Emmett Till Die in Vain? Organized Labor Says No!" here.
Amy Armenia, PhD
Professor of Sociology
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 115
T. 407.646.2277
BS, University of Massachusetts Amherst
MA, University of Massachusetts Amherst
PhD, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Dr. Armenia's research focuses on the intersection of family and work, including the challenges and contradictions faced by those who do paid care work. She teaches courses on family, race and ethnicity, and poverty and social welfare.
Wendy Brandon, PhD
Associate Professor of Education
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 108
T. 407.646.2313
EdD, Teachers College, Columbia University
Professor Brandon's teaching areas include sociology of education, gendered citizenship and education, feminist research methodologies, and qualitative inquiry in education. Her research addresses the relationships between social class, race, and gender in school success and education, and equality in a global context.
Shan-Estelle Brown, PhD
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 101
T. 407.646.2646
BA, Yale University
MA, Old Dominion University
PhD, University of Connecticut
Dr. Brown specializes in medical anthropology and co-directs the Global Health minor. Her research specialties include the patient-provider relationship, health disparities, chronic illness, self-treatment, acceptability of treatments, global health, HIV, addiction, sickle cell disease, healthcare innovation technology, healthcare user experience (UX).
Victoria Brown, PhD
Assistant Professor of English
Carnegie Hall - Office 115
T. 407.646.2047
Dr. Brown teaches fiction and creative nonfiction. In addition to creative writing, she also teaches transnational literature with a focus on contemporary Caribbean writers and post-colonial theory. She is the author of the novel, Minding Ben (Hyperion, 2011), and has published numerous short stories and works of creative nonfiction.
Nancy Decker, PhD
Associate Professor of German
Hauck Hall - Office 202
T. 407.646.2410
BA in German, College of William and Mary
MA and PhD in German Studies, Cornell University
Dr. Decker has focused her research on German colonialism in Africa. She has traveled particularly to Namibia, a former Germancolony, to investigate German women to emigrated to what was then German Southwest Africa. She has also directed field studies to Namibia.
Zack Gilmore, PhD
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) – Office 112
T. 407.691.1314
BA, Texas A&M University
MA, Southern Illinois University
PhD, University of Florida
Specializations: Anthropological archaeology, archaeology of pre-Columbian Florida and the Southeastern U.S., Late Archaic period (3700-1500 B.C.) social history, materiality & memory, microhistory & events, long-distance exchange, and early pottery technology & provenance.
Jonathan Harwell
Assistant Professor, Head of Collections & Systems
Olin - Office 109
T. 407.646.2148
MLIS, University of Alabama
MA in Social Science - Georgia Southern University
Jonathan Harwell manages a department that provides most of Olin Library’s services that happen behind the scenes. He also works with faculty to teach students how to do research. His passion is making sure the library provides all the information that Rollins needs. He and his team strive to get books and articles before people ask us for them; and to get some things from other libraries.
J. Scott Hewit, PhD
Associate Professor and Director of Teacher Education
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 243
T. 407.646.2300
BS, SUNY Plattsburgh
MS, Indiana University
EdD, Ball State Univeristy
Dr. Hewit teaches courses in instructional strategies, special needs, and curriculum. His research interests include candidate impact on P-12 student learning, public policy, and education in Rwanda.
Ja'Nya Jenoch, PhD
Visiting Assistant Professor
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 113
T. 407.646.1510
PhD, University of Central Florida
MA, St. John’s UniversityBS, McGill University
Jill Jones, PhD
Professor of English
Carneige Hall - Office 103
T. 407.646.2528
BA, University of New Hampshire
MA, University of New Hampshire
PhD, Tufts University
Jill Colvin Jones is Professor of English at Rollins College where she teaches courses that include American Literature, popular culture, and African-American Literature; also, Monsters in Literature and Film, Mean Girls, and Breaking Bad and the Great American Novel. Jones has published articles and chapters on mystery novels, Zora Neale Hurston, Harriet E. Wilson, Toni Morrison, Majorie Kinnan Rawlings, James Weldon Johnson, Connie May Fowler, and Jerry Springer and the Puritans. She also pops off in the press from time to time, from The New York Times to the Orlando Sentinel, and you can find her on podcasts and local television stations giving her opinions on Hurston, Hemingway, Huckabee, and hair products.
Ashley Kistler, PhD
Professor of Anthropology
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 105
T. 407.691.1707
BA, Muhlenberg College
MA, Florida State University
PhD, Florida State University
Cultural and linguistic anthropology, Mesoamerica, the Maya, economic anthropology, kinship, gender, collaborative ethnography, Latin American and Caribbean courses.
Emmanuel Kodzi, PhD
Associate Professor of International Business
170 W. Fairbanks - Office 207
T. 407.646.1989
BS/MS, University of Science and Technology
MBA, University of Ghana
PhD, Purdue University
Post Doc, University of Florida
My passion is to inspire deep learning and come alongside students as they develop skills in evidence-based decision-making. My work in academia is preceded by over a decade in technical and executive roles, managing made-to-order office furnishing projects. I have now taught operations management and related subjects in 4 countries to undergrads, graduate students, and practicing executives representing over 30 countries. My research interests include international expansion, operational alignment in service and social businesses, and supplier performance improvement in emerging economies.
Susan Libby, PhD
Professor of Art History
Cornell Fine Arts Center - Office 121D
T. 407.646.2448
MA, University of Maryland
PhD, University of Maryland
European and American Art from the 18th through the 20th centuries; current research focuses on the visual and material culture of French Caribbean slavery.
Lucy Littler
Lecturer
Orlando Hall - Office 102
T. 407.646.2502
BA, North Carolina State University
MA, Appalachian State University
PhD, Florida State University
Dr. Littler's field is twentieth-century American literature. Her research and teaching interests include American exceptionalism and the meanings of race in contemporary American culture.
Julia Maskivker, PhD
Associate Professor of Political Science
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 236
T. 407.646.2158
BA, Political Science, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
MA, Political Science, Columbia University
MPhil, Political Science, Columbia University
PhD, Political Science, Columbia University
Contemporary Analytic Social and Political Philosophy: Theories of Justice, Global Ethics, Ethical Foundations of Social Policy and the Welfare State; Democratic Theory, Modern Political Thought
MacKenzie Moon Ryan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Art History, Ward Faculty-in-Residence, Faculty Director of the Living Learning Community Program
Cornell Fine Arts Center - Office 121B
T. 407.646.2274
BA, Hamline University
MA, University of Florida
PhD, University of Florida
History of African and global art, with particular interest in textiles, fashion, trade, colonialism, cross-cultural exchange, and museum studies; research focuses on global networks of trade, African textiles and fashion, especially kanga cloth, and consumption of commodities to create conceptions of self.
Rachel Newcomb, PhD
Professor of Anthropology
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) – Office 106
T. 407.691.1703
BA, Davidson College
MA, Johns Hopkins University
MA, PhD, Princeton University
Specializations: Cultural and applied/public anthropology, Middle East and North Africa, gender, Islam, modernity, globalization, and identity.
Leslie Kemp Poole, PhD
Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies
Beal Maltbie Center - Office 105
T. 407.691.1679
BS, Journalism, University of Florida, 1978MLS, Rollins College, 1991
PhD, University of Florida, 2012
Professional interests and specializations include the history of the environmental movement, particularly the grassroots organizers that, in Florida and across the country, included many women. Dr. Poole's teaching and interests include environmental justice. Author of "Saving Florida: Women's Fight for the Environment in the Twentieth Century." In her spare time, she likes to hike and kayak around the state.
Paul Reich, PhD
Associate Professor
Carnegie Hall - Office 101
T. 407.691.1273
AB, Rollins College
MA, Purdue University
PhD, Purdue University
Professor Reich's areas of teaching and research include late 19th and 20th century American literature, African American literature, the American West, interdisciplinary studies and popular culture.
Dawn Roe, PhD
Associate Professor of Art
Cornell Fine Arts Center - Office 106
T. 407.691.1241
BFA, Marylhurst University
MFA, Illinois State University
Photography and digital imaging courses that align with the practice and content of lens-based media. Research focuses upon temporality, memory and perception in relation to the camera image. Work is exhibited regularly throughout the U.S. and internationally.
Joshua Savala, PhD
Assistant Professor of History
Cornell Hall for Social Sciences (CSS) - Office 203
T. 407.646.1378
Areas of Specialization: Modern Latin America, Peru, Chile, labor and working-class history, oceans in history, social movements.
Claire Strom, PhD
Rapetti-Trunzo Professor of History
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 203
T. 407.646.2270
BA, Oxford University
MA, Oxford University
PhD, Iowa State University
Agricultural history, the American South, and the progressive era.
Zeynep Teymuroglu, PhD
Assistant Professor of Mathematics
Bush - Office 114C
T. 407.646.2659
BA
MA
PhD, University of Cincinnati
Zeynep Teymuroglu earned her Ph.D. at the University of Cincinnati. Her Ph.D. research was in applied and computational mathematics with an emphasis on mathematical biology. After graduation, she worked as an Associate Manager at the Research and Development department of a market research company. She also has her master's in mathematics with an emphasis on Financial Mathematics. Her research interests are mathematical biology, mathematical modeling, and financial mathematics. She teaches Calculus, Differential Equations, and Applied Mathematics courses.
Lisa Tillmann, PhD
Professor of Critical Media & Cultural Studies
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 145
T. 407.646.1586
BA, Marquette University
PhD, University of South Florida
Lisa M. Tillmann, PhD, is an activist researcher, social justice documentary filmmaker, and professor of Critical Media and Cultural Studies (CMC), a program she founded at Rollins College. Grounded in values of peace, equity, and justice, CMC examines the world’s most pressing issues and challenges and helps students envision ways to work toward change. On campus and in central Florida, Dr. Tillmann has participated in numerous activist initiatives, many centering on civil rights.
Robert Vander Poppen, PhD
Associate Professor of Classical Art & Archaeology, Archaeology Program Coordinator
Cornell Fine Arts Center - Office 121A
T. 407.646.2602
Professor Vander Poppen teaches courses in ancient art and archaeology including the areas of Egypt, the Near East, Greece, and Rome with a particular interest in the negotiation of social and cultural tensions between imperial powers and native communities. His current research focuses on the Etruscan culture of Pre-Roman Central Italy, and the creation and maintenance of power structures within the region.
Anca M. Voicu, PhD
Professor of Economics
Cornell Social Sciences Building (CSS) - Office 272
T. 407.691.1758
BA, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest (RO)
Post Graduate Certificate Université Catholique de Fribourg
PhD, The University of Birmingham
Research Interests: international trade theory and policy, genetic algorithms applied to trade modeling, empirical trade models of the inter-war years, the impact of trade on the environment, economics and culture.
Tonia Warnecke, PhD
Associate Professor; Director, Social Entrepreneurship
Kathleen W. Rollins Hall - Office 216
T. 407.691.1285
BA, Rollins College
MA, University of Notre Dame
MPIA, University of Pittsburgh
PhD, University of Notre Dame
Dr. Warnecke is an economist specializing in international development processes and policy. She teaches courses on Global Development, Globalization and Gender, and Social Entrepreneurship. Her research is interdisciplinary and policy-oriented, focusing on gender and development issues.
Rachel Walton
Assistant Professor Digital Archivist & Record Management Coordinator
Olin 107
T. 407.691.1127
BA, in History and Minor in Art History - University of Florida
MS, in Information and Library Science - University of North Carolina
MA, in Latin American History - University of Florida