Kay Wright Lewis

Dr. Kay Wright Lewis serves as Associate Professor in the Department of History at Howard University's College of Arts & Sciences. She joined Howard in 2017 as Assistant Professor and earned tenure with promotion to Associate Professor in 2020. Her leadership roles included Director of Undergraduate Studies (2020-2023) and Interim Chair of History (April 2023-July 2024).

She earned her PhD in History from Rutgers University, New Brunswick in 2011, where her dissertation was a finalist for the Southern Historical Association’s C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize.

Her research centers on slavery and abolition, African American intellectual history, Atlantic World history, and the history of violence. She examines intersections of race, freedom, and extermination discourses across antebellum America and the broader Atlantic context, analyzing how violent ideologies shaped national formations and liberation movements.

Her publications, including the monograph A Curse upon the Nation, reveal consistent thematic focus on racial violence and emancipation. Recent work extends into comparative analyses of post-emancipation societies and transnational abolitionist thought, particularly through her contribution to Race and Nation in the Age of Emancipations.

Major recognitions include:

• Andrew W. Mellon Competitive Dissertation Fellowship
• Gilder Lehrman Center Fellowship at Yale University
• Finalist, Southern Historical Association’s C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize
• Mellon Scholars Short-term Fellowship (Library Company of Philadelphia)
• Three Month Fellowship (Lapidus Center, Schomburg Center)

Dr. Lewis has mentored students across multiple institutions and presented research internationally. Her current project The Children of Africa Have Been Called examines transatlantic slavery legacies, supported by recent fellowships from the Lapidus Center and Library Company of Philadelphia.