ISGRJ Early Career Faculty Fellows (Cohort V, 2025–2026)

Bright Gyamfi is an Assistant Professor of History. Gyamfi’s research focuses on African and African Diaspora history. He writes on African intellectuals who worked to transform and radicalize the study of Africa in academic and intellectual centers around the Atlantic. His work has appeared in the Journal of African American History, African Studies Review, Radical History Review, Africa is a Country, and The Conversation.

Christina Jackson is an urban sociologist whose research explores how structural racism and social determinants of health shape urban life. Her work centers Black maternal health, neighborhood inequality, and community resilience, bridging scholarship and community collaboration to advance racial and spatial justice in U.S. cities.

Alex Kenney is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education and College Student Affairs at Rutgers University-New Brunswick in the Graduate School of Education. As an afropessimist scholar, his research examines manifestations of antiblackness across individual, institutional, and spatial contexts, nuancing conversations on race and racism in higher education.

Clinton McNair is an assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers University in Camden. He received his Ph.D. from the political science department at the University of Oklahoma. His research areas include public administration and public policy, with a focus on social equity, nonprofits, race, emergency management, and local government.  His research analyzes the public perception of social equity and the influence of representation.

Natalie Muñoz is a proud AfroLatina and Assistant Professor of Social Work at Rutgers University–Newark. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Work from Howard University in 2023. For over 15 years, Dra. Muñoz has been a passionate advocate for underserved college students, designing and leading mentorship programs that empower Black and Latine students to thrive in academic spaces that were not built with them in mind. 

Allison Puglisi is Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University-Newark. She received a PhD in American Studies from Harvard University and a BA in History from Dartmouth College. She is a historian of Black social movements with an emphasis on gender and ecology. Her book in progress, Where We Reside: Black Environmental Thought in New Orleans, explores how housing activists—particularly Black women—laid the groundwork for a modern Black environmental tradition.

Kristen Riley's research advances health equity by improving access to behavioral medicine in underserved groups. She studies how racism and stigma shape tobacco use, cancer prevention, and sleep, using implementation science to expand care. Current work includes CBPR on lung cancer stigma in Black and LGBTQ+ patients, reducing Black maternal mortality via OB/GYN interventions, and developing sleep interventions for Black pregnant women to reduce postpartum disparities.

Shantee Rosado is an Assistant Professor of Afro-Latinx Studies in the Africana Studies and Latino and Caribbean Studies departments at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. She received her PhD in Sociology with a certificate in Latin American and Latino Studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. Her work examines racial identities and inequalities in Latin America and among Latinos in the US, as well as Afro-Latinos in popular culture.

Jhanae Wingfield brings 15+ years of experience across K–12, higher education, and community settings. Her research advances culturally relevant pedagogy, equitable early literacy, and teacher preparation for diverse learners. She examines how race, language, power, and culture shape the reading lives of Black and Brown youth, engaging debates on the science of reading and the need for culturally sustaining literacy instruction.