Shawn Leigh Alexander

Shawn Leigh Alexander is a Professor and Chair of African and African American Studies at the University of Kansas, and Director of the Langston Hughes Center. He holds a PhD from the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His research focuses on African American social and intellectual history from the 19th to 20th centuries, with a particular emphasis on civil rights movements, Black leadership, and racial violence. Alexander is the author of six books, including *An Army of Lions: The Struggle for Civil Rights before the NAACP* (2012) and *W. E. B. Du Bois: An American Intellectual and Activist* (2015). He has also edited critical editions of works by T. Thomas Fortune and W.E.B. Du Bois.

His teaching spans graduate and undergraduate courses on Black intellectual history, the Civil Rights Movement, and African American social thought. Alexander is a frequent public speaker and media contributor, appearing on PBS documentaries like *Reconstruction: America After the Civil War* (2019) and *Niagara Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Rights* (2023). He writes a weekly column on race and history for the *Lawrence Times*.

Awarded the Mortar Board Outstanding Educator Award (2018) and multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Alexander’s work bridges academic scholarship and public engagement. His current research explores the NAACP’s 1930s activism. Previously, he taught at Yale University, Amherst College, and Gettysburg College.