Sonya Ramsey

Sonya Ramsey is a Professor of History and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte), serving as Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. She holds a Ph.D. in United States History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2000). Her research focuses on African American Gender History, Education History, and Southern History, with a particular emphasis on the roles of Black women in leadership and education.

She has authored two major books: Bertha Maxwell-Roddey, a Modern-Day Race Woman and the Power of Black Leadership (2022) and Reading, Writing, and Segregation: A Century of Black Women Teachers in Nashville (2008). Her work explores themes like desegregation, oral history, and the intersection of race, gender, and education.

Dr. Ramsey holds editorial roles with journals like History of Education Quarterly and North Carolina Historical Review, and serves as a Hooks Academic Research Fellow at the University of Memphis. Her current projects include a study on African American women factory workers in the Carolinas (1960s–2000s).

Awards include Honors Faculty status at UNC Charlotte (through June 2026). She teaches courses on African American history, gender studies, and U.S. social movements.