Anna Agbe Davies
Co-Director
Dr. Agbe Davies leads IAAR-SLATE’s Coursework Component. As Faculty Teaching Director, she shapes the vision for students’ experiences in classes affiliated with IAAR-SLATE. Dr. Agbe Davies is also a historical archaeologist with Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interest focuses on the African diaspora ranging from the plantation societies of the colonial southeastern US and Caribbean, to 19th and 20th century towns like New Philadelphia and Chicago in Illinois and Durham, North Carolina.
Renée Alexander Craft
Co-Director
IAAR-SLATE’s Research Component is led by Dr. Renée Alexander Craft, who is Associate Professor and Interim Chair in the Department of Communication. As Director of SLATE-Research, Dr. Alexander Craft creates the vision for and organization of undergraduate research activities that fulfill the program’s mission. Dr. Alexander Craft’s own research interests concern the relationship among sociohistorical constructions of Blackness, Black cultural performance, and discourses of Black inclusion and exclusion within a hemispheric American framework. She has explored these topics in her work looking at an Afro-Latin community located in the small coastal town of Portobelo, Panama whose members call themselves and their carnival performance tradition “Congo”.
Cassandra Davis
Program Associate Director
Dr. Davis works with the Faculty Directors of IAAR-SLATE’s three components, playing a critical roles in the recruitment and selection of student, faculty and community participants as well as helping coordinate IAAR-SLATE events. Dr. Davis received her Ph.D in Education from UNC-Chapel Hill and has been the primary investigator on five research evaluations regarding underrepresented students. Her research interests include the impact of natural disaster on schools, education policy, qualitative research methods, and program evaluation.