He earned his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley where he subsequently held a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Ethnic Studies. Prior to teaching at San Francisco State University, Dr. Barganier was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Africology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, a Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, a Research Fellow at the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice and Head Curriculum Developer at the Museum of the African Diaspora.