Three African American Faculty Members Receive Promotions at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania
Filed in Appointments on April 16, 2021
Nina Johnson was promoted to associate professor of sociology at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. She was also awarded tenure. Her research interests lie in the areas of inequality, politics, race, class, culture, stratification, and mobility.
Dr. Johnson is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she majored in urban studies and African American studies. She holds a master’s degree in culture and communication from New York University and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Joseph Derrick Nelson was promoted to associate professor of educational studies and granted tenure. In recent years, his research has been focused on learning environments that largely serve Black students from neighborhoods with concentrated poverty. He is affiliated with the Black Studies Program and the Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at the college.
Dr. Nelson began his career as a first-grade teacher in the Milwaukee public schools. His forthcoming book is entitled, Unjust Resilience: Black Boyhood, Academic Success, and the Middle School Years (Harvard Education Press).
Ron Tarver was promoted to associate professor of photography. Before joining Swarthmore, he was a staff photojournalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 32 years, sharing in the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for his work on a series documenting school violence in the Philadelphia public school system.
A native of Oklahoma, Tarver earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and graphic arts from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and a master of fine arts degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
