Faculty & Staff

Maxine Bryant, Ph.D, Director

Maxine Bryant is an assistant professor of Criminal Justice.  In June, 2021 she stepped into the role of  director for the Center for Africana Studies.  She is also the Founding Director for the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center.  Dr. Bryant’s research area focuses on the successful reintegration of formerly incarcerated persons.  She has written and presented on the role of the church in their successful reintegration, voting rights for formerly incarcerated persons, and the benefits of subsidized transitional jobs for successful reintegration.  She is extremely active in the Savannah community around prisoner reintegration efforts.  Her passion for Africana studies stems from an African American history class she took in undergraduate school.  She approaches all of her classes, and indeed her community work, from an Afrocentric perspective.  Leading the Center for Africana Studies allows Bryant to marry her two passions since Blacks are disparagingly over-represented throughout the criminal justice system.  She believes that knowledge of the greatness of Black people can be a tool to mitigate Black on Black crime and that teaching accurate history can result in a greater understanding of why current tensions exist between the Black community and the criminal justice system.  

Amir-Jamal Toure’, J.D.

Amir-Jamal Toure’, J.D. works with Dr. Bryant in both the Center for Africana Studies and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center.  Amir is a native of Savannah and Hilton Head Island. His families have been in the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina since at least  1814 and establishing family compounds in the late 1800s. He is a graduate of Savannah State University with dual degrees, Cum Laude, and the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University. Touré is called the People’s Historian and is the resident scholar for Geechee Kunda Cultural Center and Museum in Riceboro, Ga., and is known as a Djeli (cultural historian) who shares the history of African people at home and in the diaspora, in particular.  He created an artform of history where he performs a one-man event and is frequently called upon to perform internationally to share the history and culture of African people.  His audiences have included the Prime Minister of Haiti, the Liberian Ambassador to the United States, Danny Glover, Queen Quet, and, more importantly—for the people. He is the founder of Day Clean: The African Soul and Day Clean Journeys. History, Culture, and Empowerment are their focus.