Christopher Bonner

Christopher Bonner is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland. His research focuses on African American history, citizenship studies, and 19th-century US transformations. He authored Remaking the Republic: Black Politics and the Creation of American Citizenship (2020), which examines how free Black Americans shaped citizenship rights in antebellum America. His current project explores enslaved individuals’ navigation of commercial networks to secure freedom. Bonner holds a B.A. from Howard University and a Ph.D. from Yale University.

He teaches courses on African American politics, slavery in the Atlantic world, and race in early America. His work appears in edited volumes like New Perspectives on the Black Intellectual Tradition and digital platforms such as Black Perspectives. Bonner’s scholarship emphasizes legal and political strategies used by marginalized communities to demand rights and reshape national identity.