Dr. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers
Amrita Chakrabarti Myers earned her doctorate in U.S. History from Rutgers University, specializing in African American History and Women’s History. A historian of Black women, her work examines the intersections of race, gender, power, and freedom, focusing on the lives of enslaved and free Black women in the Old South.
Myers has been the recipient of several awards for her scholarship, including a 2017 fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies; the 2013 Phillis Wheatley Book Prize from the North East Black Studies Association; the 2012 Julia Cherry Spruill Book Prize from the Southern Association of Women Historians; the 2012 George C. Rogers, Jr. Book Prize from the South Carolina Historical Society; the 2011 Anna Julia Cooper-C.L.R. James Book Prize from the National Council for Black Studies; and the 2009 Letitia Woods Brown Article Prize from the Association of Black Women Historians.
Prof. Myers’ social justice work was recognized by Indiana University with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Building Bridges Award in 2017. That same year, she organized a teach-in examining violence against women titled, “Violent Intersections: Women of Color in the Age of Trump.” In March 2015, she was the lead organizer of “It’s Not So Black and White: Talking Race, From Ferguson to Bloomington,” a Black Lives Matter campus-community teach-in and justice fair. This work led to the creation of the “Social Justice in America Series,” an annual set of events designed to bring town and gown together each spring in order to have “tough talks on tough topics.” The theme of this year’s events was “Defending Democracy: Confronting Voter Suppression and White Supremacy in the New Millennium.”
Myers is regularly interviewed by the media on contemporary issues of race and gender justice. She appeared on PBS NewsHour in May 2018 regarding the controversial arrests in Starbucks in Philadelphia, and this past summer she was invited to discuss Juneteenth and equity issues on “Fox and Friends.” She is also a regular political and social commentator on the “Today with Dr. Kaye,” show out of Baltimore. Closer to home, she is a co-anchor for WFHB’s award-winning African American radio show, “Bring It On!” A segment she co-anchored on racial profiling by the police for that show in the Fall 2016 won first place for “Outstanding Contributions in Reporting Events of Public Importance, Radio Public Affairs,” by the Indiana Chapter of the Society for Professional Journalists in April 2017. She has also published editorials and articles on anti-Blackness and policing in the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Washington Post.
Although a full-time university professor, Myers spends much of her time doing organizing and equity work in the community. She is one of the founders of Btown Justice, a community group that functions as a social justice information clearing house, and she has spent several years working with the local chapter of BLM-Btown. At any point during the year you can find her giving lectures and workshops to groups ranging from the Indiana National Organization for Women to local area high schools on topics having to do with Race and Policing, Black Lives Matter, the Confederate Flag, #MeToo, and other issues related to race, gender, power, justice, and freedom.
Myers has the scholarly background to speak to not only the subject matter of her own books, but to a variety of issues having to do with American History more broadly, and Southern History, Slavery, and Black Women’s History specifically. Her understanding of the importance of historical context in shaping today’s institutions and structures also makes her an engaging speaker for a variety of current issues including Defunding the Police, Confederate War Memorials, #BlackLivesMatter, and the position of Black women in the #MeToo movement. People regularly refer to her informal, engaging speaking style, her passion for her subject matter, her sense of humor, as well as her deep knowledge of the material at hand, all of which make her a charismatic and appealing speaker. Several years of public speaking in a variety of venues have also helped Myers learn how to gage her audience, and she knows how to make the transition from classroom, to academic panel, to protest rally, to radio and tv interviews with ease. In Myers, you are getting a seasoned speaker.
Dr. Myers’ award-winning first book, Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston, was published by UNC Press in 2011. She is now completing her second book, The Vice President’s Black Wife: Resurrecting Julia Chinn. This new book examines the decades-long, antebellum relationship of a Black woman named Julia Chinn with congressman, senator, and one-term Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson of Kentucky (1837-1841) and the family the pair openly built together. Myers is the Ruth N. Halls Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies and the 2020-2022 College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Fellow for Diversity and Inclusion at Indiana University-Bloomington.