Minor in African & African American Studies

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.

A group of Rollins students post at a event for the African and African American Studies (AAAS) program.

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

Popular Courses

The AAAS program offers a number of courses in a variety of disciplines ranging from history, anthropology, religion, music, global languages, critical media and cultural studies and sociology.

ARH 145 Introduction to African Art

Introduces archaeological, historical, modern, and contemporary works of African art in their aesthetic, cultural, and historical contexts. Examines sculpture, masquerade, textiles, painting, photography, architecture, and personal objects.

HIS 120 Decade of Decision

Explore the politics, power, and betrayal that define Caesar’s Rome through a combination of writing, research, and role play.

A history class focused on Ancient Greece.

ARH 243 Fashion in Africa

Trace African fashion from cloth to everyday clothing and high-fashion catwalks between the 19th century and today. Explore how African dress reveals information about culture, history, political systems, religious worship, gendered relations, and social organization.

SOC 111 Social Problems

Follow traditional areas of social-problem analysis, including poverty, sexism, racism, and crime, as they evolve and transform society.

Social entrepreneurship professor Josie Balzac-Arroyo participates in a panel focused on social justice.

GBH 200 Introduction to Public Health

Investigate the concepts and methods for measuring health in populations, and consider the impact of health care systems, public health systems, and government policies on health and disease patterns.

A professor addresses a class of students.

SOC 331 The Civil Rights Movement

Investigate the African-American freedom struggle from the era of slavery to the present, with a special emphasis on the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Keep Exploring

Take a deeper dive into African & African American Studies studies at Rollins by exploring past events.

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

Associate Professor and Sociology Department Chair

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

Professor of History

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

Visiting Instructor in Philosophy

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

Department Chair, Kenneth L. Curry Professor

Research interests: Medical humanities, disability studies, 20th-century American literature
Ja'Nya Jenoch, PhD

Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology