Faculty and Staff
Director - Dr. Terry Kershaw
Dr. Kershaw came to Virginia Tech in 1999 to serve as the head of the Africana Studies (then Black Studies) program. He provided the impetus behind the relocation of the program in order to add the graduate component through the linkage with the Department of Sociology. He took over the leadership of the Center for Race and Social Policy Research in 2005, and merged AFST and RSP in the Summer of 2006. Dr. Kershaw is reknowned as an expert on engaged scholarship via the medium of scholar-activism. His current projects include elaborating scholar-activism and developing an intersectional and interdisciplinary perspective on race relations.
Assistant Director - Dr. Ellington Graves
Dr. Graves joined the Center in 2005 when he and Dr. Kershaw took over RSP when its founder, Dr.Susan Gooden, left Virginia Tech. In addition to teaching courses in the Department of Sociology, he serves as primary advisor to Race and Social Policy Graduate Certificate Students. Dr. Graves's research interests include racial disparities in education, Black idenitty and political ideology and residential segregation.
Africana Studies Faculty
Dr. Kwame Harrison - Assistant Professor
Dr. Paolo Polanah - Assistant Professor
Dr. Paula Seniors - Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow
Africana Studies Affiliated Faculty
Dr. Beverly Bunche-Lyons - Associate Professor, History (Northern Virginia Center)
Dr. Gena Chandler - Assistant Professor, English
Dr. Fred D'Aguiar - Gloria Smith Chair in Africana Studies/Professor, English
Dr. Haywood Farrar - Associate Professor, History
Dr. Virginia Fowler - Professor, English
Professor Nikki Giovanni - University Distinguished Professor, English
Professor Robert Graham - Professor, Art and Art History
Dr. Michael Herndon - Assistant Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Ed McPherson - Learning Technology/Director, VT STARS
Dr. Moses Panford - Assistant Professor, Foreign Languages
Professor Lucinda Roy - Alumni Distinguished Professor, English
Race and Social Policy Affiliated Faculty
Dr. Joyce Arditti - Associate Professor, Human Development
Dr. Beverly Bunch-Lyons - Associate Professor, History
Dr. Sam Cook - Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Wilma Dunaway - Associate Professor, Government and International Affairs
Dr. Larkin Dudley - Associate Professor, Center for Public Administration and Policy
Mr. Harry Dyer - Director, Diversity Certificate Program/Instructor, Interdisciplinary Studies
Dr. Haywood Farrar - Associate Professor, History
Dr. April Few - Associate Professor, Human Development
Dr. Charles Good - Professor, Geography
Dr. Charles Goodsell - Professor Emeritus, Center for Public Administration and Policy
Dr. Ted Koebel - Director Emeritus, Center for Housing Research/Professor, Urban Affairs & Planning
Dr. Barbara Lockee - Professor, Teaching and Learning
Dr. Renee Loeffler - Director, Institute for Public Policy Research
Mr. Ed McPherson - Learning Technology/Director, VT STARS
Dr. Manuel Perez-Quinones - Associate Professor, Computer Science and Engineering
Dr. Richard Shingles - Associate Professor, Political Science
Graduate Assistants
Lawrence "Jahi" Johnson
Jahi, a Chicago native, is enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Sociology. His research interests center around African American leadership.
Jennifer Wyse
Jennifer is a native of Virginia Beach, VA.
She has come to us as a graduate of Old Dominion University as an M.S. student in the Sociology graduate program. 