Dr. E. Nicole Vines (she/her)
Education:
- Gettysburg College
- M.A. American History (with distinction)
- University of California, Riverside
- Ph.D. Ethnic Studies
- M.A. Ethnic Studies
- B.A. African American Studies (magna cum laude, ΦΒΚ)
Research Interests:
19th – 21st Century Black American History; Black Identity Formation; Black Self-Representation; Critical Race Theory; Colorblindness/Post-racial Ideologies; Jim Crow; Social Resistance Theory; Womanism; Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade; Usurpational Idealism
About Me:
Dr. E. Nicole Vines is a cultural historian and interdisciplinary scholar of Ethnic Studies who teaches Black Studies at California State University Channel Islands. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Ethnic Studies and a B.A. in African American Studies from the University of California, Riverside, along with an M.A. in History from Gettysburg College.
Her research investigates the evolving construction of “race” and its enduring influence on the experiences of Black Americans. Drawing on archival, historical, and theoretical approaches, Dr. Vines examines how racialized social structures—from proto–Jim Crow regimes to contemporary systems of inequality—have shaped Black life and constrained access to full civic belonging. She is especially interested in how racialized identities take shape and shift in the 19th-century United States, and in how Black communities actualize practices of self-definition and resistance across the intertwined eras of enslavement and emancipation.
Courses
BLST 101 Race and the American Imagination
BLST 150 Introduction to Ethnic Studies
BLST 200 Foundations of Black Intellectual Thought
BLST 202 Introduction of Black Studies
BLST 203 Black Feminist Traditions
BLST 301 Maintaining Constructs of Poverty in the U.S.: Rethinking the Welfare Queen
BLST 303 Black Perspectives: Race, Class, and Gender
BLST 352 Principles of Black Resistance
Presentations/Talks
- (2025). “More Than Freedom,” Fighting Jim Crow in the West: Charlotta Bass and the Racial Discrimination Case Against the Old Adobe Café in Ventura, CA. Untold Legacies Ventura Book Publication Symposium. CSU, CI
- (2025). Beyond the Bus: Rosa Parks and the Quiet Power of Resistance. Oxnard Public Library, Oxnard, CA
- (2024). Conversations in Black: Dr. Blair L.M. Kelley. Discussion Series. CSU, CI
- (2024). Dr. Carter G. Woodson and the Fight for Accessible Education. Invited Panel Discussion. Association of American University Women, Camarillo, CA.
- (2023). CSUCI: Let Freedom Read: Faculty Book Ban Panel. CSU, CI
- (2022). International Education Week: Black Collective Diasporas. CSU, CI
Honors/Fellowships
- Fulbright-Hays GPA for U.S. Educators in South Africa. CSU Los Angeles/U.S. Department of Education
- Advancing and Expanding Ethnic Studies Mellon Award. San Francisco State University/Andrew W. Mellon
Professional Memberships
- Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH)
- Black Women’s Studies Association (BWSA)
- Organization of American Historians (OAH)
Committee Service
CSU, Channel Islands
- Academic Senate: Black Studies Department Senator Representative
- Academic Senate: Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA), Representative
- Academic Senate: Center for Social Action (CSA) Advisory Board
- Black Faculty and Staff Association (BFSA), Faculty Co-Chair. CSU Channel Islands
Organization of American Historians
- Ellis Hawley Book Prize Committee