Alaina E. Roberts

Alaina E. Roberts is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, affiliated with the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. She holds a PhD from Indiana University and a BA from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on the intersection of Black and Native American histories, particularly in the 19th-century U.S., emphasizing settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, and anti-Blackness. Roberts’ work draws on her family’s history as descendants of Black individuals enslaved by the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations.

Her seminal book, I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land (2021), redefines Reconstruction by examining Black freedom struggles in Indian Territory. The book has won major awards, including the Stubbendieck Prize and W. Turrentine Jackson Book Prize. Roberts also contributes to public scholarship through op-eds in TIME, Washington Post, and High Country News, and her work has been featured by CNN, The New York Times, and the Boston Globe.

Roberts’ academic service includes roles on editorial boards for the Journal of the Civil War Era and Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, and she actively engages in community initiatives, such as historical consultations for documentaries and educational workshops. Her teaching includes courses on African American history, the Black West, and public narratives around monuments and museums.

Her awards include the Phillis Wheatley Book Award (2021), multiple fellowship recognitions, and grants from the American Philosophical Society and the Western History Association. Roberts continues her research on modern legacies of slavery in the Five Tribes and serves on university committees promoting equity and anti-racism initiatives.