Crystal Sanders, associate professor of History and African American Studies, has been chosen to become the new director of Penn State’s Africana Research Center (ARC). She will assume the directorship July 1. The ARC supports research into the lives and experiences of Africans across Africa and in the African diaspora across the globe, deepening and broadening Penn State’s teaching and outreach missions. Dr. Sanders first came to Penn State as a postdoctoral fellow in the ARC and has been an affiliate of the center since joining the Penn State faculty in 2012. She is also one of the organizers of the Richards Center’s annual Emerging Scholars Undergraduate Mentoring Program, which helps to prepare talented scholars from under-represented backgrounds for graduate study and careers in the academy. You can read more about the ARC and Dr. Sanders’ scholarly mission by following this link.