Leigh Raiford

Leigh Raiford is Professor of African American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, where she also serves as inaugural director of the Mellon Foundation-funded Black Studies Collaboratory. She holds affiliate appointments in American Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies. Raiford earned her PhD from Yale University in 2003 through a joint African American Studies and American Studies program, followed by a Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellowship at Duke University.

Her research examines intersections of race, gender, justice, and visuality, with particular focus on photography in African American freedom struggles, visual cultures of the African diaspora, and Black artistic practices. Her scholarly approach bridges cultural studies, memory studies, and critical race theory.

Raiford's publications consistently explore the politics of visual representation in Black life, from historical photography to contemporary art practices. Her work demonstrates sustained engagement with themes of memory, resistance, diaspora, and the role of images in shaping racial consciousness across different historical periods.

Awards & Fellowships:

• American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship
• Ford Foundation Fellowship
• Mellon Foundation Fellowship
• Woodrow Wilson Postdoctoral Fellowship
• Hellman Family Foundation Fellowship
• Volkswagen Foundation Fellowship
• Fulbright Senior Specialist
• Finalist, Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Best Book Prize (2011)

As director of the Black Studies Collaboratory, she leads this Mellon-funded initiative to reimagine Black Studies. She has co-curated significant exhibitions including Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary at the California African American Museum and About Things Loved: Blackness and Belonging at Berkeley Art Museum.