The Curb Center

Rosevelt Noble joined the Curb Center as a Senior Fellow in August 2015. Since 2002, he has also served as a Senior Lecture in the Department of Sociology at Vanderbilt University. In this capacity, he has taught courses on deviant behavior, criminology, prison life, social problems, and statistics. A scholar of the American criminal justice system, he has publications pertaining to the interracial dynamics of prison violence, racial disparities in incarceration sentences, and he is currently working on a publication examining racial bias in the jury selection process in capital punishment cases. He has worked as a quantitative research consultant for the Tennessee Department of Corrections, the Federal Prosecutors Office, and several law firms.

In 2007, his personal curiosity led him to begin working on a research project examining the history and experience of African-Americans at Vanderbilt University using a mix method research design; however, relying heavily on oral histories as the primary method of data collection. This project allowed Rosevelt to merge his artistic passions of photography and video production in the realm of academic research. Through the art of storytelling, he has captured many lost historical facts and provided cathartic relief to countless current and past students. His personal curiosity has resulted in over 400 video recorded interviews and numerous volumes of pictures, documents, articles, and other artifacts. His work on this project has been used in training sessions throughout the university concerning diversity and inclusion. Additionally, he has supplied archival content for projects such as the exhibition entitled “Race, Sports, and Vanderbilt: 1966-70” sponsored by the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery. Upon the completion of the data collection process, he intends to develop a digital archive, publish extensively on the quantitative and qualitative findings, as well as write a definitive text on the history of African-Americans at Vanderbilt University. Previously, Rosevelt was a Director with the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. He earned his BS from Vanderbilt in 1997 and his Ph.D. in Sociology from Vanderbilt in 2003.