Associate Professor of History and African American Studies
Paula C. Austin is a U.S. historian with a focus on African American history, the history of race and racism, visual culture, urban and women’s history, history of social science, and the history of childhood. Her book, Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC: Navigating the Politics of Everyday Life (NYU Press, 2019) is a social and intellectual history of poor and working class young Black people in early twentieth century, racially segregated Washington D.C. In 2016, she was the co-editor of Radical Teacher (Vol 106) special issue on “Teaching #BlackLivesMatter.” She has held fellowships at the NYPL Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the CUNY Graduate Center Institute for Research on the African Diaspora in the Americas. She comes from an adult basic education background and facilitates professional development in equity, diversity, and inclusive pedagogy.