People
Sylvester Johnson, Professor and Director of the Center for Humanities
The founding director of the Virginia Tech Center for Humanities, Sylvester A. Johnson, is a nationally recognized humanities scholar specializing in the study of race, religion, and technology.
Before moving to Virginia Tech, Johnson was promoted to the rank of professor in the Department of African American Studies and the Department of Religious Studies at Northwestern University. Johnson served as the director of the Center for African American History at Northwestern, where he administered an annual budget, convened board meetings, engaged with external entities, developed an annual series of guest lectures, planned research colloquia, and advanced the general mission of that center to promote research in Black history. His collaborative research experience includes leading an artificial intelligence development project at Northwestern University, which involved a transdisciplinary team of humanities experts and software engineers.
Dominique Francesca, Business Manager
Dominique Francesca, Business Manager
Dominique Francesca is the Center for Humanities’ Business Manager and Office Administrator. A native of Minneapolis, Dominique came to Virginia Tech in 2019 after a long career in business ownership and management in the New River Valley, as well as in the Mid- and Southwest. She manages the center’s fiscal responsibilities and serves as the primary assistant to the director.
Jason Higgins, Digital Humanities and Oral History Postdoctoral Fellow
Dr. Jason A. Higgins is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities and Oral History. He recently earned a Ph.D. in History from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, studying Modern US/Global and African American History, and specializing in the Vietnam War, trauma, and Veterans Studies. He is the director of the Incarcerated Veterans Oral History Project and the co-editor of Service Denied: Marginalized Veterans in Modern American History (UMass Press, 2022).
Dr. Jason Higgins, Digital Humanities and Oral History Post-Doctoral Fellow
Andreza Jorge, Graduate Assistant
Andreza Jorge, Graduate Assistant
Andreza Jorge is a Brazilian Black feminist and PhD student at ASPECT. She has worked with a variety of social projects focused on racial, gender, and sexual identity.