About

Dr. Will Tyson is a Professor of Sociology at the University of South Florida. His research examines how educational experiences shape career trajectories and lifecycle transitions, with a focus on structural and interpersonal influences on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education and career pathways across high school, community colleges, and universities. He is the author of Teaching and Learning Employability Skills in Career and Technical Education (2020), which explores how career and technical education programs teach soft skills that are vital for middle-skill STEM jobs. 

In over 20 years as an NSF-funded researcher, Dr. Tyson has led multiple major projects including PathTech Tampa Bay, PathTech LIFE, and PathTech LISTEN, and he currently co-leads initiatives such as the TURNPIKE and CCSN Scholarships in STEM (S-STEM) grants that aim to improve transfer student success and equity in STEM education, especially for rural, nontraditional, and low-income populations. As an evaluator, he is the External Principal Investigator for the Evaluation of the NSF Improving Undergraduate Student Education (IUSE: EDU) program led by Mathematica.  Overall, Dr. Tyson has helped secure over $27.5 million in NSF funding.  

Dr. Tyson joined IBL as Associate Director in August 2024 and began serving as both the Interim Director of the Institute on Black Life and the Interim Chair of the Racial Justice Initiative in August 2025. Starting January 2026 Dr. Tyson became and Director of the Institute on Black Life and the Chair of the Racial Justice Initiative.  In May 2026, Dr. Tyson was elected 2028-29 President of the Southern Sociological Society. 

• Sociology of education
• Race, gender, and class
• Occupations, organizations, and work

Graduate

• Race and Ethnicity
• Sociology of Education
• Sociology of Higher Education
• Mixed Methods Research
• Issues in Higher Education Practicum: Mixed Methods Research and Grantsmanship 

Undergraduate

• Racial and Ethnic Relations
• Introduction to Sociology
• Sport in Society
• Sociology of Education
• Sociology of Higher Education
• Research Methods

Rebecca Sohl is a program manager and project leader at the University of South Florida’s Institute on Black Life (IBL), where she oversees the planning, coordination, and execution of major academic and community initiatives. Her work focuses on developing interdisciplinary programming, managing complex projects and grants, and organizing large-scale events that connect faculty, students, and community partners.  She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Florida Atlantic University and a Master of Science in International Relations from Florida State University. She also pursued doctoral studies at the University of South Florida, completing coursework and advancing to ABD (All But Dissertation) status.

• Introduction to International Relations
• Globalization

Jordan Battle is an Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies at the University of South Florida and Assistant Director of Student Research at the Institute on Black Life at USF. His work is rooted in Afropessimism, critical race theory, and the archival study of Black life, with a particular focus on the psychological implications of enslavement and anti-Blackness for everyone socialized within America's racial order. He is animated by a central question: what does it mean to carry that inheritance, consciously and unconsciously, across generations? At IBL, he develops and leads interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate research groups where students sit with that question and others seriously and rigorously. His recent community-engaged work has focused on voting rights and civic reentry in Florida.

• Psychology and Philosophy of Anti-Blackness
• Afropessimism and Black Critical Theory
• Enslavement, Racial Terror, and Their Afterlives
• Archival Recovery and Black Historical Memory
• Civil Rights History and Historical Consciousness
• Voting Rights, Felon Disenfranchisement, and Civic Reentry
• Black Studies and Visual Culture / Horror Film

AFA 2000  Introduction to the Black Experience

AMS 3700  Racism in American Society

AFA 4940  Voting Rights Internship (Internship in Africana Studies)

AFA 4931  Journey Towards Justice (JTJ) Maymester — Civil Rights Immersion Course