Anita L. Allen
Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy
- Privacy Law, Theory and Values
- Legal Theory
- Contemporary Ethics and Bioethics
- Mental Illness
- Accountability
- Race Relations
- Gender and the Law
Regina Austin
William A. Schnader Professor of Law Emeritus Director, Penn Program on Documentaries & the Law
- Torts & Insurance
- Law & Cultural Studies
- Minority Legal Feminism
- Economic Discrimination
- Documentaries and the Law
- Visual Legal Advocacy (Production)
Herman Beavers
Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt President’s Distinguished Professor of English and Africana Studies, On Sabbatical 2023-2024 Academic Year
- 20th Century African American Literary and Cultural studies
- Jazz Studies
- African American poetry and poetics
- Gender Studies
- Science and literature
- Medicine and literature
Mary Frances Berry
Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought Professor of History and Africana Studies
- African American History
- History of American Law
- History of Law and Social Policy
Gregory Bisson
Assistant Professor of Medicine
- Infectious Diseases
- Patient-Oriented Research
- HIV
- International Health
Vaughn A. Booker
George E. Doty, Jr. & Lee Spelman Doty Presidential Associate Professor of Africana Studies
African American Religions
Black Religious and Spiritual Authority
Religion and Popular Music
Religion, Irreverence, and Comedy
Religion and Civil Rights / Black Freedom
Religion and Intersectionality
Latoya Briscoe
Cultural studies, sovereignty and decoloniality, technology, visual anthropology, experimental ethnography, alternative epistemologies.
Geographical Area
Latin America/Caribbean
Kathleen Brown
David Boies Professor of History
- History of Race and Gender
- History of Slavery and Abolition
- History of Race Relations
- Atlantic History
- History of Women
- History of Sexuality
- U.S. History
J. Margo Brooks Carthon
Tyson Family Endowed Term Chair for Gerontological Research Associate Professor of Nursing
- History of race and illness (Early 20th Century)
- Health disparities
- Healthcare workforce diversity
- Nursing organization and minority health outcomes
- Health and social policy
Lorene Cary
Senior Lecturer in English
- Fiction writing
- Creative Non-fiction writing
- Memoir writing
- Education; urban education; alternative education
- Underground Railroad
- African-American history
Camille Z. Charles
Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Faculty Director of the Office of Penn First Plus, Chair, Department of Africana Studies
- Urban inequality
- Racial attitudes and intergroup relations
- Racial residential segregation
- Minorities in higher education
- Racial identity
Marcia Chatelain
Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania
Angela Duckworth
Christoher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Psychology
- Self-control grit achievement psychology character
- Quantitative research methods
Richard Estes
Emeritus Professor
- International and Comparative Social Development
- Strategic and Long Term Planning
- Social Indicators
- Social Reporting
Harvey Friedman
Professor of Medicine
Cell and Molecular Biology
Vivian Gadsden
William T. Carter Professor in Child Development and Education Director, National Center on Fathers and FamiliesAssociate Director, National Center on Adult Literacy
- Cultural and social factors affecting learning and literacy across the life-course and within families,
- Intergenerational learning
- Relationships between literacy in families and issues of culture, race, gender, and poverty in diverse learning contexts
- Interconnectedness among families' political, cultural, and social histories and racialized identities
Susan Gennaro
Professor of Nursing
Physiologic mechanisms which may herald preterm birth
Daniel Q. Gillion
Julie Beren Platt and Marc E. Platt Presidential Distinguished Professor of Political Science
- Racial and Ethnic Politics, Political Behavior, Public Opinion
- Judicial Politics
- The American Presidency
- Questions of political participation
- Institutional influences on citizens' behavior
- Governmental responsiveness to citizens' concerns.
Marie Gottschalk
Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished Professor of Political Science
- Criminal justice
- Health policy
- U.S. political economy
- Organized labor
- Welfare state
- Comparative politics of public policy
Kathleen Hall
Associate Professor of Education and Anthropology
- Immigration, race relations, and education
- Citizenship, cultural politics, and national incorporation
- Class, socialization and social stratification Social theory
Michael Hanchard
Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies, On Leave Fall 2023 Term
- Comparative Politics (Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity, Social Movements, Political Culture)
- Africana Studies
- Latin American Studies
- Political Theory (Citizenship, Comparative Political Theory)
Ira Harkavy
Adjunct Assistant Professor of History Associate Vice President and Founding Director of the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
Urban University-Community-School partnerships
John L. Jackson Jr.
Richard Perry University Professor of Communication and Anthropology Professor of Africana Studies, University of Pennsylvania Provost
- Ethnographic Film and Visual Studies
- Race Theory
- Globalization, Transnationalism, and Diaspora
- Media Anthropology
- Urban Studies
- Cultural Studies
- Performance Theory
- Popular Culture
Loretta Sweet Jemmott
Professor Emerita of Nursing Director of the Center for Health Disparities Research
- Designing and evaluating interventions to reduce HIV risk-associated sexual behaviors
- Health outcomes research including strategies to reduce other behavior-linked health problems, e.g. cancer (smoking), heart disease
Olivia Kerr (she/they)
Olivia’s research explores the contours of twentieth-century African American women’s lives through archival analysis and oral histories. They have explored Black queer women’s interiorities throughout their time as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow—culminating in a senior honors thesis. Olivia is deeply interested in the early to mid-twentieth-century United States and the tangible and epistemic manifestations of Blackness during the period, especially regarding African American women. Her work is grounded in Black Feminist Epistemology, Black Queer Theory, and a historical methodological approach.
Hans-Peter Kohler
Frederick J. Warren Professor of Demography, Department of Sociology Research Associate, Population Studies Center University of Pennsylvania
- Fertility and Related Behaviors in Both Developing and Developed Countries
- Social Interactions and AIDS-related Behavior in Africa
Shiriki Kumanyika
Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology in Biostatistics and Epidemiology Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
- Obesity Epidemiology and Prevention
- Childhood Obesity
- Global Obesity Epidemic
- Food Marketing
- Food and Nutrition Policy
- Health Disparities
- Systems Sciences
William Labov
Professor of Linguistics
- Frequency Studies
- Reading and narrative
- African American Vernacular English
Andrew Lamas
Lecturer, Urban Studies Program Lecturer, School of Social Policy and Practice
Ian MacMillan
The Dhirubhai Ambani Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Organizational Competence
- New Venture Management and Entrepreneurship
Ann Mayer
Associate Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics
- Comparative constitutional law
- Human rights and globalization
- International human rights law
- Law in the contemporary middle east
- Women’s international human rights
Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr.
Edmund J. and Louise Kahn Term Professor of Music
- African-American and American music
- Jazz
- Cultural studies
- Popular music
- Film studies
- Historiography
Timothy Rebbeck
Professor of Epidemiology
- Identifying and characterizing cancer genes
- The relationship of allelic variation of cancer genes with cancer occurrence and cancer outcomes
- The role of cancer genes in cancer etiology and outcomes in the context of the demographic, biochemical, environmental, and physiological risk factors
Adolph Reed
Professor of Political Science Emeritus
- American and African American politics and political thought
- Urban politics
- American Political Development
Marc Ridgell (They/Them)
They/Them
They are interested in how Black LGBTQ+ communities within U.S. cities experience life and organize against systemic violence and urban inequality. Marc is also interested in using ethnographic methods, as well as theories in visual culture and performance studies, to depict urban Black queer and trans life.
Dorothy E. Roberts
George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology, Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights Professor of Africana Studies, Director, Program on Race, Science, and Society
- Race and Gender
- Family
- Criminal Justice
- Bioethics
- Sociology of Science
- Critical Race Theory
Timothy Rommen
Davidson Kennedy Professor in the College Professor of Music and Africana Studies
- Caribbean Studies
- Coloniality/decoloniality
- The political economy of music and sound
- Creole musical formations
- Tourism
- Diaspora
- Music and spirituality
- The ethics of style
David Roos
Professor of Biology
- Genetic Analysis of Parasite Biology
- Mechanisms of Drug Action and Resistance
Barbara D. Savage
Geraldine R. Segal Professor Emerita of American Social Thought Professor Emerita of Africana Studies
- Twentieth Century African American history
- History of American religious and social reform movements
- History of the relationship between media and politics
Diana Slaughter-Defoe
Constance E. Clayton Professor Emerita in Urban Education
- Urban education
- Primary education
- Parenting and child development
- Home/school partnerships
Howard Stevensen
Constance Clayton Professor of Urban Education
- African-American psychology
- At-risk youth and high-risk boys
- Family and parental engagement
- Racial integration and re-segregation
Robert Vitalis
Professor of Political Science
- Race and American International Relations Theory
- African-American Internationalist Thought
- The Political and Cultural Economy of the World Oil Industry
- American Expansionism
- History of International Relations and Development Studies
Daniel Wagner
Professor, UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy Director, International Literacy Institute and National Center of Adult LiteracyHead, Program in International Education Development
- Cross-Cultural Studies of Cognition and Socialization
- Education in Developing Countries
Heather A. Williams
Geraldine R. Segal Professorship in American Social Thought, Professor of Africana Studies, On Leave 2023-2024 Academic Year
- Nineteenth Century African American History
- History of Slavery in the American South
- Jamaican Migrations
- Race in American History
Tukufu Zuberi
Lasry Family Professor of Race Relations Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies
- Sociology
- Human Rights
- Global Africa
- Africana Studies
- Population and Health
- Film