María Esther Hammack

Dr. María Esther Hammack is an Assistant Professor of African American History at The Ohio State University, based in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of History. A Mexican scholar and public historian, her research bridges liberation and abolition movements across the US, Mexico, and Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas at Austin (2021), an M.A. (2015) and B.A. (2012) in History from East Carolina University, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania (2021–23).

Her research focuses on redefining narratives of Black Liberation in North America, particularly through the lens of Black women’s migration to Mexico for freedom. Her first book, Channels of Liberation: Freedom Fighters in the Age of Abolition, reinterprets the Underground Railroad’s geographic and temporal scope. She currently co-leads a Mellon Foundation Humanities in Place grant collaborating with the Webber Family Preservation Project in Texas and serves multiple national/international organizations. In 2024–25, she received the Rodica C. Botoman Award for her teaching and mentoring in undergraduate education.

Teaching highlights include courses on Black Women in Slavery & Freedom, African American History, and American Revolutions. She co-organized the 2024 Forging Freedom: AfroLatin American Independence Movements symposium and actively engages in public history initiatives.