Barbara J. Fields | |
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Born | Barbara Jeanne Fields 1947 (age 76–77) |
Awards | John H. Dunning Prize (1986) Lincoln Prize (1994) |
Academic background | |
Alma mater | Harvard University (BA) Yale University (PhD) |
Academic work | |
Institutions | Columbia University Northwestern University University of Michigan University of Mississippi |
Barbara Jeanne Fields (born 1947) is an American historian. She is a professor of American history at Columbia University. [1] Her focus is on the history of the American South,19th century social history,and the transition to capitalism in the United States.
Barbara Fields was born in Charleston,South Carolina,in 1947, [2] and was raised in Washington,D.C.,where she attended Morgan Elementary School,Banneker Junior High School,and Western High School. [3] She received her B.A. from Harvard University in 1968,and her Ph.D. from Yale University in 1978. At Yale,she was one of the last doctoral students of C. Vann Woodward,one of the preeminent American historians of the twentieth century. She appears in Ken Burns' documentary series,The Civil War and The Congress. [4] [5]
Fields was the first African American woman to earn tenure at Columbia University. She has also taught at Northwestern University,the University of Michigan,and the University of Mississippi. She is widely known for her 1990 essay,"Slavery,Race and Ideology in the United States of America." [6] She authored the 2012 book Racecraft:The Soul of Inequality in American Life (along with her sister Karen Fields,a sociologist). [7] [8] [9] [5] The book argues that race is a product of racism;that racism is an ideology and a way of misunderstanding social reality;and that racecraft in American society serves to obfuscate the actual dynamics of inequality. [9]
Bard College awarded Fields an honorary doctorate in May 2007. She received the Philolexian Award for Distinguished Literary Achievement in 2017.
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Hazel Vivian Carby is Professor Emerita of African American Studies and of American Studies. She served as Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor of African American Studies and American Studies at Yale University.
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Steven Howard Hahn is Professor of History at New York University.
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France Winddance Twine is a Black and Native American sociologist, ethnographer, visual artist, and documentary filmmaker. Twine has conducted field research in Brazil, the UK, and the United States on race, racism, and anti-racism. She has published 11 books and more than 100 articles, review essays, and books on these topics.
George M. Fredrickson was an American author, activist, historian, and professor. He was the Edgar E. Robinson Professor of United States History at Stanford University until his retirement in 2002. After his retirement he continued to publish several texts, authoring a total of eight books and editing four more in addition to writing various articles. One of his best known works remains White Supremacy: A Comparative Study of American and South African History, which received the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize and the Merle Curti Award as well as made him a finalist of the Pulitzer Prize for History and the National Book Award.
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Dorceta E. Taylor is an American environmental sociologist known for her work on both environmental justice and racism in the environmental movement. She is the senior associate dean of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Yale School of the Environment, as well as a professor of environmental justice. Prior to this, she was the director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at the University of Michigan's School of Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), where she also served as the James E. Crowfoot Collegiate Professor of Environmental Justice. Taylor's research has ranged over environmental history, environmental justice, environmental policy, leisure and recreation, gender and development, urban affairs, race relations, collective action and social movements, green jobs, diversity in the environmental field, food insecurity, and urban agriculture.
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Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life is a 2012 anthology book co-authored by sociologist Karen Fields and her sister, historian Barbara J. Fields. The book examines the origins and production of race and racism in the United States. Published by Verso Books, Racecraft is organized as a collection of three original essays and six republished essays examining race. The book draws an analogy between race and witchcraft, arguing that both concepts function as mystical, yet seemingly rational explanations for real events.
Divisions: A New History of Racism and Resistance in America's World War II Military is a book by American historian Thomas A. Guglielmo, published on October 1, 2021, by Oxford University Press. The book explores the complex and multifaceted nature of racism and resistance within the United States military during World War II, as well as their long-term implications for the poswart desegregation of America's armed forces and the civil rights movement. Guglielmo, a historian and Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University, conducted extensive archival research for the book, which won the Society for Military History's Distinguished Book Award in 2022.