Dr. Alexandria Russell is a historian, public history practitioner, and digital project developer who is passionate about making African American history accessible to people of all backgrounds.  Her research, published scholarship, digital projects, and inventive public programming expands our knowledge of African American History, United States History, Women & Gender Studies, and Public History.  

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     In 2018, she earned a Ph.D. in History from the Department of History at the University of South Carolina.  She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education from the College of Charleston in 2009.  Her forthcoming book project, Sites Seen and Unseen: Mapping African American Women’s Public History (University of Illinois Press), is a national study that examines the evolution of African American women’s public commemorations in the United States from the late nineteenth century to the present.  She has received several grants and fellowships to support her research, including the W.E.B. Du Bois Center Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.  In 2022, she was awarded an American Democracy fellowship from the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University.

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She is currently the Harvard & The Legacy of Slavery Research Fellow for digital humanities at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, where she helps develop digital projects for public audiences.  As a digital humanities consultant, she works with local and national African American history initiatives to create accessible online content for audiences of all ages.  She has previously contributed to other university slavery initiatives, including the Scarlet & Black Project at Rutgers University where she served as a Postdoctoral Fellow and helped develop campus public history markers, community engagement programs, and an interactive digital archive. 
 

    Dr. Russell’s professional experience also extends to her work on Capitol Hill for Congressman James E. Clyburn (SC-06) and as a middle school educator in Berkeley County, South Carolina.  Her experience as a public school teacher has informed her work as a public history consultant when she develops curriculum guides for children, participates in community advisory boards, and coordinates public programming.  As the founder and Executive Director of Black Women Legacies, she is committed to raising awareness of the many memorials in the United States and abroad that have been created to celebrate the legacies of Black women.  

 

For a full list of Alexandria Russell’s scholarship, presentations, digital projects, and professional experience, click “Curriculum Vitae” below.