Research/Areas of Interest
U.S., African American, Native American, family history and the history of genealogy
Education
- PhD, New York University, New York, United States, 2010
- MPP, Harvard University, Cambridge, United States, 2002
- BA, Williams College, Williamstown, United States, 1999
Biography
Dr. Kendra Taira Field is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for Public History at Tufts University. Field is the author of Growing Up with the Country: Family, Race, and Nation after the Civil War (Yale, 2018), which traced her own ancestors' lives in slavery and freedom. Her current book project, The Stories We Tell (W.W. Norton), is a history of African American genealogy and storytelling from the Middle Passage to the present, and winner of a 2023 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant. Field abridged David Levering Lewis' W.E.B. Du Bois: A Biography (Henry Holt, 2009), and her scholarly articles have appeared in the Journal of American History, the Journal of African American History, Southern Cultures, Transition, and the American Historical Review. Her recent AHR article, "The Privilege of Family History" explores the history of African American engagement with family history and genealogy in slavery and freedom. Field has been awarded numerous fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Huntington Library, and Harvard University's Charles Warren Center in American History. An elected member of the Society of American Historians, she is the recipient of the 2025-26 Sheila Biddle Ford Foundation Fellowship at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University; the Western Writers of America's 2017 Spur Award for Best Western Short Nonfiction; the 2016 Boahen-Wilks Prize; and the 2022 NAACP W. E. B. Du Bois Award.
As a public historian, Field co-founded the Du Bois Forum, a retreat for writers, scholars, and artists, and serves as chief historian for the 10 Million Names Project. Field served as project historian for the Du Bois Freedom Center, the first museum in North America dedicated to the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois; and co-curated "We Who Believe In Freedom: Black Feminist DC," the inaugural exhibition of the National Women's History Museum. Field has advised and appeared in historical documentaries including Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" (2013), "Roots: A History Revealed" (2016), and "Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre" (2021). Most recently, Field joined Robert Hartwell on screen throughout the new six-episode streaming saga, "Breaking New Ground," now live on HBO Max. Field received her Ph.D. in American History from New York University. She also holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Williams College. Before entering the academy, she worked in education, organizing, and the non-profit sector in Boston and New York.
As a public historian, Field co-founded the Du Bois Forum, a retreat for writers, scholars, and artists, and serves as chief historian for the 10 Million Names Project. Field served as project historian for the Du Bois Freedom Center, the first museum in North America dedicated to the life and work of W.E.B. Du Bois; and co-curated "We Who Believe In Freedom: Black Feminist DC," the inaugural exhibition of the National Women's History Museum. Field has advised and appeared in historical documentaries including Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" (2013), "Roots: A History Revealed" (2016), and "Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre" (2021). Most recently, Field joined Robert Hartwell on screen throughout the new six-episode streaming saga, "Breaking New Ground," now live on HBO Max. Field received her Ph.D. in American History from New York University. She also holds a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Williams College. Before entering the academy, she worked in education, organizing, and the non-profit sector in Boston and New York.