Program Overview

African and African American Studies Affiliated Faculty Program

The Department of African and African American Studies (AAAS) and the Office of the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences are pleased to announce a new joint program of Affiliated Faculty in AAAS. Recognizing the interdisciplinary nature of the department, this initiative seeks to expand the research and other networks that support it across Arts and Sciences, enabling the department better to achieve its mission to "prepare [students] to become global citizen[s], scholar[s], and social activist[s] who [are] sensitive to the demands of an increasingly diverse America and world."

Program Details

• The program is a joint initiative between the Department of African and African American Studies and the Office of the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
• It aims to expand research and network support across Arts and Sciences.
• The mission of the program is to prepare students to become global citizens, scholars, and social activists sensitive to the demands of a diverse America and world.

Affiliated Faculty Members

• Brandy Monk-Payton
  • Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication and Media Studies and affiliated faculty in African & African American Studies at Fordham University.
  • Research interests include African American media representation and cultural production.
• Caitlin Meehye Beach
  • Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History and Music.
  • Research focuses on transatlantic art histories of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
• Christina Greer
  • Associate Professor of Political Science and American Studies at Fordham University.
  • Primary research and teaching interests include racial and ethnic politics, American urban centers, presidential politics, and campaigns and elections.
• Clara E. Rodríguez
  • Professor of Sociology at Fordham University's College at Lincoln Center.
  • Author of numerous books, including "Heroes, Lovers and Others" and "Changing Race: Latinos, The Census and the History of Ethnicity in the United States".
• Isaie Dougnon
  • Research examines migration, work, and lifecycle in West Africa.
  • Published several articles contributing to current debates on child labor.
• Jordan Alexander Stein
  • Book historian with research focusing on methods for literary history.
  • Co-edited "Early African American Print Culture" and authored "When Novels Were Books".
• Julie Kim
  • Associate Professor of English.
  • Published articles on eighteenth-century Afro-Caribbean medicine, indigenous land rights, and early Caribbean plantation economies.
• Julie Kleinman
  • Urban anthropologist specializing in migration and social activism in Mali, Senegal, and France.
  • Authored "Adventure Capital: Migration and the Making of an African Hub in Paris".
• Michele Prettyman
  • Scholar of African American cinema, visual and popular culture, and a media consultant.
  • Recent publications include "The Persistence of Wild Style: Hip Hop and Music Video Culture at the Intersection of Performance and Provocation".
• Mónica Rivera Mindt
  • Board-certified neuropsychologist and Professor of Psychology, Latinx Studies, and African & African American Studies.
  • Research focuses on the intersection between cultural neuroscience and health disparities in cognitive aging.
• Nana Osei-Opare
  • Assistant Professor of African and Cold War history in the History Department.
  • Working on a manuscript titled "Socialist Decolony: Ghana's Cold War".
• Sasha Ann Panaram
  • Assistant Professor of English and an Affiliated Faculty Member in African & African American Studies.
  • Research focuses on twentieth and twenty-first century African American and Caribbean literature and culture.
• Shellae Versey
  • Assistant Professor of Psychology.
  • Research focuses on aging in place, neighborhoods, and housing.
• Subha Mani
  • Associate Professor of Economics and a Research Associate at the Center for International Policy Studies.
  • Specializes in development economics, labor economics, health, education, program evaluation, field experiments, applied econometrics, and applied microeconomics.
• Thomas De Luca
  • Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Studies Program.
  • Specializes in the study of democracy and politics in the U.S. and abroad, with additional interest in China.
• Vivian Lu
  • Cultural anthropologist broadly interested in the politics of profit and identity in contemporary capitalism.
  • First book project focuses on the migratory circulations of Nigerian businessmen amongst contemporary commercial sites across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
• Westenley Alcenat
  • Historian of the nineteenth century U.S and Caribbean.
  • Manuscript in revision titled "Children of Africa, Shall Be Haytians:" Prince Saunders and the Foundations of Black Emigration to Haiti.
• Yuko Miki
  • Associate Professor of History and Latin American and Latinx Studies.
  • Author of "Frontiers of Citizenship: A Black and Indigenous History of Postcolonial Brazil".