Hi! I’m Rwany Sibaja,* Associate Professor in the Department of History at Appalachian State University. I serve as the Director of the History Education Program, and beginning in July 2024, as the Executive Director for Teacher Education in the College of Arts & Sciences.
I hold a Ph.D. from George Mason University (GMU) and worked in K-12 public schools for over a decade before transitioning to higher education.
Research Focus
My interests center on popular culture in modern Latin America. Currently, my work focuses on soccer and identity in mid-twentieth century Argentina.
Current Project
In my current book project, tentatively titled Civilization and Barbarism in Argentine Soccer, I examine how middle-class perceptions of civility and disorder in fútbol shaped, and reshaped, notions of Argentine national identity and masculinity between the 1920s and early 1970s.
My secondary research areas of interest focus on digital tools in the history and social studies classrooms and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). In particular, I explore the ways new media tools are reshaping the teaching, learning, research, and production of history.
A Brief History
Before joining App State, I enjoyed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), and developed educational projects at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. In public education, I worked as a curriculum program manager for K-12 Social Studies and as a 9-12 History and Spanish teacher in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina.
I received my bachelor’s degree from Elon University, master’s degree from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG), and during my doctoral work at GMU also concentrated in digital history and modern Britain.
A resident of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Deep Gap, NC, I enjoy spending time with my wife, two children, and our high-energy dog … usually with a good cup of coffee.