Anthony Dustin Rollins

I am sociological leadership and intersectional sexualities scholar within the contexts of rural America, complex agricultural and higher education organizations, and sexual subcultures. I am currently ABD with an expected Ph.D. in Leadership Development (Social Science Concentration) in the Agricultural Education and Communication Department at the University of Florida in May 2020. In addition, I have a focused concentration on completion of an advanced graduate certificate in Women's, Gender, and Sexualities Research from the Center for Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies Research at the University of Florida. My research centers the experiences of marginalized populations within rural America through a variety of leadership and resilience pathways with critical attention to the intersections of race, class, gender, and sexualities. In addition, I maintain interdisciplinary research interests in the rural experience of queer men utilizing PrEP and TaSP as an intervention for the prevention and experiences living and thriving with HIV/AIDS as well as state interventions and regulation of sexualities experiencing HIV/AIDS in America. Finally, I am an avid researcher on the use of culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom and studying its effects on educational achievement and development of a socially conscious leadership framework for approaching social problems.

My dissertation is a hermeneutical phenomenology focusing on the "Lived Resilience Experiences of Queer Junior Faculty Navigating Tenure and Promotion in Colleges of Agricultural and Related Sciences." This critical project will illuminate the experiences of intersectionally marginalized queer junior faculty as they navigate highly political and sometimes contentious terrain in the tenure-track experience within a rural, agricultural and natural resources context. It will also provide implications for leadership by department chairs, deans, and other administrators in developing support mechanisms for intersectionally marginalized junior faculty.

In addition to my research and scholarship, I have spent over 9 years working professionally in a higher education setting, leading students and complex political higher education organizations through leadership change, transition, teaching college courses, and developing a critical sociological imagination to address current social problems that manifest within organizational and educational settings.