
CRGC Chair & Administration


Allison Johntry Sr. Administrative Assistant CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Program Directors
- African American & African Diaspora Studies:
Sybil Williams - American Studies:
Mary Ellen Curtin - Arab World Studies:
Irene Calis - Asia, Pacific, & Diaspora Studies:
Hye Young Shin - Latina/o/x Studies:
David Vázquez - Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies:
Amy Barber
All CRGC Faculty
Last name starts with A
Tanja Aho Sr Professorial Lecturer CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Dr Tanja Aho is a Senior Professorial Lecturer in American Studies, where Dr Aho teaches classes focused on disability and madness, settler colonialism and racial capitalism, and gender and sexuality.…



Last name starts with B



Lydia X.Z. Brown Adjunct Professorial Lect
Lydia X. Z. Brown is an advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender…
Last name starts with C

Irene Calis Director, Arab World Studies CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Irene Calis is a decolonial scholar, educator, and organizer. Her research focuses on emancipatory politics from the perspective of those living their struggle, aiming to imbed critique and the disman…


K. Tyler Christensen Professorial Lecturer CAS - Critical RGC Studies
K. Tyler Christensen holds a PhD in American Literature & Culture from the English Department at The George Washington University. The expanse of his doctoral work is concerned with storytelling that …

Donald Collins Adjunct Professorial Lect
Donald Earl Collins is a freelance writer and historian who has written on the topics of multiculturalism, education reform, race, and the history of African American and American identity for more th…

Mali Collins Asst Professor CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Mali Collins’ research areas include Black motherhood studies, Black archival studies, 20th and 21st century literature and art, medical humanities, digital technology, and reproductive health and jus…

Robert B. Connelly, Jr. Adj Sr Prof Lecturer CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Bob Connelly is a senior adjunct professorial lecturer of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Bob received his M.F.A. in Film and Electronic Media at American University, and began teaching LGBTQ f…
Mary Ellen Curtin Assoc Professor CAS - American Studies
Mary Ellen Curtin has a Ph.d from Duke University and is a historian of modern African American and women's social and political history. Her first book Black Prisoners and Their World documented the …
Last name starts with D

Last name starts with E

Morad El Sana Adjunct Professorial Lect
Dr. Elsana is an adjunct professor at the American University. Prior, he served as a professor of Public International Law, International Human Rights Law, and International Humanitarian Law. Dr. Elsa…

Last name starts with G


Anthony Gualtieri Adjunct Professorial Lect CAS - Critical RGC Studies
As a public anthropologist working in the District of Columbia, I research creative economic development, placemaking, public policy, and inequality.

Mustafa Gurbuz Adj Sr Prof Lecturer
Mustafa Gurbuz is a political sociologist whose research focuses on political violence and terrorism, conflict resolution, social movements, Muslims in the West, and ethnic/sectarian politics in the M…

Last name starts with H


Last name starts with J

Christina Juhasz-Wood Professorial Lecturer CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Christina Juhász-Wood is a Professorial Lecturer in the American Studies Program where she teaches courses on American culture and history, poverty, and critical refugee studies. Her work focuses on s…
Last name starts with K




Judd King Adj Sr Prof Lecturer
Judd King currently teaches in the Department of Philosophy and Religion and is affiliated with the Arab World Studies Program. His primary research interests are modern Islamic political movements, g…
Last name starts with L

Keith Leonard Assoc Professor CAS - Literature
Keith D Leonard is the author of Fettered Genius: The African American Bardic Poet from Slavery to Civil Rights. His publications, presentations, and courses have revolved around his study of…
Last name starts with N

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Martyn Oliver Faculty Chair, AU Core CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Martyn was born and raised in southern Minnesota. In addition to Washington State and Boston, his studies also took him to Scotland, Lebanon, Austria, and Morocco. His work explores the construction o…
Last name starts with R

Christina Riley Professorial Lecturer CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Christina Riley’s research focuses on the cultural dynamics of group collectivity and their ensuing on/offline sociopolitical relays. Christina is particularly invested in digital group coherence and …

Elizabeth Rule Asst Professor CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Dr. Elizabeth Rule (enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation) is an Assistant Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University in Washington, DC. Rule’s research on issue…

Theresa Runstedtler Assoc Professor CAS - History
Theresa Runstedtler is a scholar of African American history whose research examines Black popular culture, with a particular focus on the intersection of race, masculinity, labor, and sport. Her crit…
Last name starts with S


Hye Young Shin Sr Professorial Lecturer CAS - World Languages and Cultures
Dr. Shin received her PhD in Multilingual and Multicultural Education from George Mason University and Master’s degree in TESOL from American University. As a native Korean, she has taught both herita…


Elke Stockreiter Assoc Professor CAS - History
Elke Stockreiter is a historian of modern Africa. Her research and teaching interests include the histories of colonialism, gender, race, and slavery in Africa and the Indian Ocean World. Trained as a…
Last name starts with T


Alison Thomas Hurst Sr Prof Lecturer CAS - Literature
Alison Thomas has taught at AU since 2005, and has offered courses in the Department of Literature and in the American Studies Program. Her research focuses on information literacy and the teaching of…


Sarah Trembath Professorial Lecturer CAS - Literature
Sarah Trembath is an editor, writer, and educator. She has been teaching since 1998 and joined the AU faculty in 2014. Her written work has appeared in Radical Teacher, the Santa Fe Writer’s Project Q…
Last name starts with V

David Vazquez Associate Professor Literature and CRGC, Program Director of Latinx Studies CAS - Critical RGC Studies
David J. Vázquez is Associate Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies and Director of the Latina/o/x Studies Program. He teaches courses on comparative Latina/o/x literature and cultur…

Katharina Vester Assoc Professor CAS - History
Katharina Vester is Associate Professor of History & American Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. She specializes in cultural theory, transnational studies, and the dynamics of power in…

Quynh Vo Professorial Lecturer CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Dr. Quynh Vo is a Professorial Lecturer in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies and a faculty affiliate of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. Her…
Last name starts with W

Kathryn Weathersby Adjunct Professorial Lect CAS - Critical RGC Studies

Sybil Williams Director of African American and African Diaspora Studies CAS - Critical RGC Studies
Sybil R. Williams has spent the past twelve years cultivating her craft as a playwright and dramaturg. Her work has been professionally produced by Chicago’s ETA Creative Arts Theatre; New York’s Nati…

Li (Lily) Wong Assoc Professor CAS - Literature
Lily Wong is an Associate Professor in the departments of Literature (LIT) and Critical Race Gender & Culture Studies (CRGC) at American University. She also serves as an Associate Director of Faculty…

Onaje Woodbine Assoc Professor CAS - Philosophy and Religion
Onaje X. O. Woodbine’s research explores the varieties of black religious experience, especially as they are lived on the margins of power and outside the bounds of established institutional authority…