Biography: La Tanya L. Rogers
La Tanya L. Rogers, Ph.D.
La Tanya L. (Reese) Rogers, Ph.D. is serving as Interim Dean of the School of Humanities & Behavioral Social Sciences at Fisk University. She is also an Associate Professor of Literature and Drama and Associate Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Honors Program. She earned a doctorate degree in English from Howard University and two bachelor’s degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where she won a coveted Mellon Mays Fellowship.
In previous roles, La Tanya Rogers served as a Communications Coordinator for the financial firm, A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.; intern/translator for the United States Commercial Service and Embassy in Madrid, Spain; and Assistant Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of the District of Columbia. She has consulted on performance review, accreditation, and compliance for the US Department of State, DC Public Schools, Spelman College, and the US Department of Commerce, among other organizations.
To increase capacity at Fisk, Dr. Rogers has served on many grant teams across the past two school years, applying cooperatively for nearly $10 million in funding for technology, Honors student development, design thinking and curriculum, and innovation. La Tanya Rogers is the proud faculty advisor to the 2022 and 2024 national Battle of the Brains championship teams from Fisk University.
Committed to advancing her dual disciplines of English and Honors, Dr. Rogers currently serves as the Vice President of the National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP). From 2019-2023, she served as President of the College English Association–Mid-Atlantic Group (CEA-MAG). CEA-MAG is a scholarly organization for professors, graduate students, teachers, and writers from Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.
Focused on global engagements, Dr. Rogers has led more than 100 students and faculty on study tours to France, Italy, the Bahamas, Spain, Mexico, Barbados, Morocco, Egypt, and Ghana. She has lived and researched in Madrid, Spain and São Paulo, Brazil, where, in the latter location, she penned and published an essay on colorism, economic racism, and Langston Hughes.
Dr. Rogers's first book on Black women playwrights will be published in February 2025 by the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign’s IOPN Press. Her second manuscript has support from an editorial team at Brown University. Dr. Rogers is already a published author on subjects ranging from contemporary playwrights in the United States to economic racism in Brazil.
In 2004, she co-founded the Edward Alexander Bouchét National Graduate Honor Society, which now has chapters at Howard, Yale, Stanford, and many other prominent universities across the nation.
Education:
Ph.D. African American Literature and Drama, Howard University, Washington, DC
A.B. English Literature, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
A.B. African American Studies and Literature, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Contact information:
Office Location: Park-Johnson Hall, Office of the Dean, Rm. 104
Office Phone Number: 615-329-8769
Office email: Lrogers@fisk.edu
- Research & Publications
- Professional Service
- Conference Presentations,Supervisions, & Committees
- Courses
LaTanya Rogers, Ph.D. Research & Publications
Rogers, La Tanya L., “Black Surrogacy: Topdog/Underdog and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Dramatic Aesthetic.” the Black Theatre Review 1:2 (2023): 1-10. https://doi.org/10.2458/tbtr.4781
Rogers, La Tanya L. “Adjusting the Literary Narrative (and Ourselves) for Impact and Currency in the ‘New’ World.” CEA Mid-Atlantic Review 29.1 (2021): 6-9.
Rogers, La Tanya L. “Beyond the Binary: Rev. D. in Suzan-Lori Parks’ In the Blood and the Big Mamas in Shay Youngblood’s Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery.” Interdisciplinary Humanities 34.1 (2017): 99-110.
Rogers, La Tanya L., The Motherhood Aesthetic in Contemporary Plays by Black Female Playwrights. (University of Illinois IOPN Press), due 2024
Rogers, La Tanya L., Mimicry, Minstrelsy, and Masking in Plays by Suzan-Lori Parks (Brown University Digital Publications, IMLS), due 2025
LaTanya Rogers Ph.D. Professional Service
SACS-COC Reaccreditation Committee Member (Fisk), 2019-2021 and 2023-present
Honors Faculty Council and Prestigious Awards Committees Chair (Fisk), 2019-present
Faculty Assembly Executive Committee Member (Fisk), 2022-2023
Reavis L. Mitchell Distinguished Lecture Series Committee Chair (Fisk), 2020-present
Global Initiatives Committee Member (Fisk), 2019-present
Nashville Public Library’s Education Committee, 2023
Nashville Sounds “The Nine Steering Committee,” (Minor League Baseball), 2022-2023
Frist Museum’s Education Council, 2022-present
Metro Arts' Kossie Gardner, Sr. Community Park Initiative, 2021
LaTanya Rogers, Ph.D. Conference Presentations
Rogers, La Tanya L., “Throwing Up a Highway Through De Wilderness: An Interactive Exploration of Contemporary Black Female Playwrights,” College English Association – Middle Atlantic Group (CEA-MAG) Annual Conference, March 2024.
Rogers, La Tanya L. and Tanya E. Walker, “Motherhood and the Black Female Playwrights’ New Aesthetic,” Black Books Interactive Project, Virtual Mini Conference, University of Kansas, October 2023.
Rogers, La Tanya L., “Understanding Lynn Nottage’s Sweat,” Vanderbilt University and Fisk University Joint Theatre Panel on Sweat (at Vanderbilt), Nashville, TN, November 2022.
Rogers, La Tanya L., “Mimicry, Minstrelsy, and Masking: Theorizing Black Surrogacy in the Plays of Suzan-Lori Parks,” Born-Digital Scholarly Institute, Brown University, July 2022.
Johnson, Laura; La Tanya L. Rogers; Angelia Brooks; and Timia Raines, “The Honors Talk Live Podcast on Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste,” National Association of African American Honors Programs (NAAAHP), Virtual, October 2021.
Rogers, La Tanya L., “Out of The Box (Literally!): Innovative Academics and Student Success Beyond the Classroom,” HBCU Summit on Retention, Ocean City, MD, March 2019.
Rogers, La Tanya L. Reese, “Birthplace: Midwestern Bridges to Ralph Ellison and Langston Hughes,”
College English Association – Middle Atlantic Group (CEA-MAG) Annual Conference, March 2018
Rogers, La Tanya L., “Odd” Visions and Odyssey Dog: Hero’s “Wars” in Father Comes Home from the Wars: Parts 1, 2 & 3.” Black Theatre Network (BTN) Annual Conference, Winston-Salem, N.C., August 2017.
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U.S. Department of Commerce Consultant, 2016, 2022
U.S. Department of State Consultant, 2013
DC Public Charter School Board Consultant, Washington, DC, 2010
LaTanya Rogers, Ph.D. Courses
Harlem Renaissance
African American Literature
Senior Honors Thesis
Contemporary African American Drama
Introduction to the Honors Program
English Composition I and II
Black Short Story
Black Masculinity