Kabria Baumgartner

Kabria Baumgartner is the Dean’s Associate Professor of History and Africana Studies at Northeastern University. She holds a PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and specializes in early U.S. history, African American women’s history, public history, and education history. Her research focuses on Black educational activism, youth organizing, and community engagement. She co-founded the Newburyport Black History Initiative, aiming to preserve New England’s Black heritage through public installations and programming.

• Education: PhD in History, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Affiliations: Editor of Global Black Thought, co-editor of the University of Massachusetts Press’ Black New England series
• Grants: National Park Service, Spencer Foundation, National Academy of Education

Her research interests emphasize Black women’s agency in education and civil rights, public humanities, and historical preservation. Recent projects include the King Pompey Project, which unearthed the home of an enslaved African man who gained freedom in colonial Massachusetts. Baumgartner’s work bridges academia and community, highlighted by her 2024 Black Excellence on the Hill Award and Leadership in History Award.

She teaches courses on early African American history, slavery and abolition, and public history, integrating experiential learning. Her book In Pursuit of Knowledge (2019) won multiple prizes, and her second book, On the Cusp: Black Youth and the Origins of Civil Rights in Boston, is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press.