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Discover and honor the contribution of Africans and their New World descendants in Western culture and society. Your studies will incorporate an analysis of historical and contemporary issues facing Africans or African Americans by integrating international perspectives, service learning, and traditional archival research. Faculty teaching African & African American studies courses include members of the expressive arts, humanities, and social sciences.

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Dive into African & African-American Studies

The mission of the African and African American Studies (AAAS) program at Rollins College is to foster an awareness of the contributions and impact of people of African descent on the western hemisphere and a greater understanding of the complexity linked to the global African Diaspora.

See What You'll Learn

Expert Faculty

African & African American Studies Program

Cornell Hall for the Social Sciences – Room 210
1000 Holt Ave. – 2761
Winter Park, FL32789

Telephone:407.646.2214

  • Matthew Nichter, PhD

    Matthew Nichter, PhD

    Associate Professor and Sociology Department Chair

    Research interests: Relationship between the African-American freedom struggle, labor unions, and the socialist movement

  • Amy Armenia portrait

    Amy Armenia, PhD

    Director of Institutional Research and Analytics

    Research interests: Family, race and ethnicity, poverty and social welfare, and the challenges and contradictions faced by those who do paid care work

  • Shan-Estelle Brown portrait

    Shan-Estelle Brown, PhD

    Associate Professor of Anthropology

    Research interests: Health disparities, acceptability of treatments, global health, HIV, addiction, sickle cell disease, and health-care innovation technology

  • MacKenzie Moon Ryan portrait

    MacKenzie Moon Ryan, PhD

    Department Chair, Professor of Art History

    Research interests: History of African and global art, with particular interest in textiles, fashion, trade, colonialism, cross-cultural exchange, and museum studies

  • Claire Strom portrait

    Claire Strom, PhD

    Professor of History

    Research interests: U.S. history, especially American sexuality and the Vietnam War

  • A professional headshot of Rollins professor Joshua R. Brown.

    Joshua R. Brown

    Visiting Instructor in Philosophy

    Research interests: Political Philosophy, Ethics, Philosophy of Race, Philosophy of Law, Capital Punishment.

  • Emily Russell

    Emily Russell, PhD

    Department Chair, Kenneth L. Curry Professor

    Research interests: Medical humanities, disability studies, 20th-century American literature

  • An icon of a silhouette.

    Ja'Nya Jenoch, PhD

    Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology