Cherrise Jones-Branch has been promoted to dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Communication at Arkansas State University. She currently serves as dean of the Graduate School and will transition to her new job on July 1.
Dr. Jones-Branch has been with Arkansas State University for over 20 years, first joining in 2003 as an assistant professor in the department of history. In 2016, she achieved the rank of full professor and one year later was awarded her current title as the James E. and Wanda Lee Vaughn Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences. Prior to her current appointment, she has held various academic leadership roles including advisor of the major and minor in the department of history, advisor of the African American studies minor, and assistant chair of the department of history.
As an academic, Dr. Jones-Branch’s research interests include African American history, women’s history, Arkansas history, civil rights, and rural history. She is the author of Crossing the Line: Women’s Interracial Activism in South Carolina During and After World War II (University of Florida Press, 2014) and Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1965 (University of Arkansas Press, 2021).
Dr. Jones-Branch holds three degrees in American history: a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the College of Charleston in South Carolina and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University.
