Dr. David Ponton III is a historian of Afro-America and the twentieth century United States. Ponton has been an assistant professor at the University of South Florida since 2017, primarily teaching in areas of Africana Studies, has been serving as the Undergraduate Director for SIGS since 2021, and is affiliate faculty with the Institute for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Department of Women's and Gender Studies. Ponton received his A.B. degree from Princeton University with a religious studies concentration and certificates in African American Studies and 6-12 social studies education. After teaching high school history for three years, Ponton earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in History at Rice University with a graduate certificate in the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.