Meet Dr. Leah Gaines
Dr. Gaines joined the University of Central Florida in Fall 2021 as a lecturer in Interdisciplinary Studies. She holds a PhD in African American and African Studies, with a concentration in Urban Education, from Michigan State University. She received a Master’s from Morgan State University, where she studied History and African American Studies. She completed her undergraduate studies at Towson University, where she majored in Psychology, and minored in African American Studies.
Her research interests are in structural inequities, urban education, student experiences, African American Language, Black women and beauty, race, and identity. Her latest publication, In the Midst of the Water Crisis: Language and Resistance in Flint, is an ethnographic work that examines how an educational community in Flint, Michigan has used language to resist the ongoing water crisis.
