Dr. Tonya Thames-Taylor
www.tonyathamestaylor.com
Associate Professor

Brief Biography:

A native Mississippi and granddaughter of a sharecropper, Southern and cultural historian tonya thames taylor is a magna cum laude graduate of Tougaloo College (1992) and the University of Mississippi (1994, 2005). She earned her academic degrees through fellowships and scholarships. At West Chester University, she is an Associate Professor of History, former Assistant Dept. Chair, Creator and Director of the African American Minor, Chair of the Multicultural Faculty Commission, Chair of the Executive Committee of the Frederick Douglass Institute, and the Director of the FDI Summer Scholars Program. In the community, she serves in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People as the Chair of Education Committee.

Teaching Interests:

Social and Cultural History, Ethnicity, and Labor.

Research Interests:

Class, Violence, Race, Identity, and Memory.

Honors/Awards:

Numerous. Currently, Quest for Freedom/Pennsylvania Humanities Council's Live and Learn Scholar.

Presentations:

Numerous. All Invited or accepted proposals, since June 2009.

June 2009--Invited Lecturer, "Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Significance of Antietam” Antietam National Battlefield, Maryland.

June 2009-- Facilitator, Levi Coffin and William Still’s Fleeing for Freedom, Live and Learn /Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom Scholar, greater Carlisle, PA area.

October 2009--Presenter, "“Well, I’ll be John Brown”: The Role of African American Women in the Canonization of John Brown," John Brown Remembered: 150th Anniversary of John Brown's Raid, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

October 2009--Session Chair, John Brown in African-American Cultural Memory John Brown Remembered: 150th Anniversary of John Brown's Raid, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

November 2009--Facilitator, Thulani Davis’ My Confederate Kinfolk in Mercersburg, PA on November 6-7; this program sponsored by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC), Pennsylvania Quest for Freedom, and the Franklin County Visitors Bureau.

November 2009--Workshop Convener, "‘Stupid Girls,’ Sex in the City, and Embracing Creativity," 2009 PASSHE Women’s Consortium Conference, West Chester, PA, November 6, 2009.

Department Home Page

	Department of History 500 Main Hall West Chester, Pennsylvania 19383	(610)436-2201 http://www.wcupa.edu/