Mary Ellen Curtin Associate Professor CAS | CRGC | Critical Race Gender and Culture Studies
- Additional Positions at AU
- Associate Professor
- Degrees
- PhD Duke University 1992
- Favorite Spot on Campus
- Coffee at the Dav
- Bio
- Mary Ellen Curtin is a historian of modern African Â鶹´«Ã½ and women's social and political history. Her first book BLACK PRISONERS AND THEIR WORLD, ALABAMA, 1865-1900 (University Press of Virginia, 2000) investigated the origins of the convict leasing system in Alabama and explored the lives of Black convict coal miners and their communities after emancipation. Her latest book, SHE CHANGED THE NATION: BARBARA JORDAN'S LIFE AND LEGACY IN BLACK POLITICS (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) examines the life and significance of Texas congresswoman Barbara Jordan (1936-1996), the first Black woman from the South elected to Congress. Dr Curtin served as a consultant for the PBS documentary Slavery by Another Name, (2012) a history of African Â鶹´«Ã½s and forced labor in the South. She teaches courses in Â鶹´«Ã½ Studies, Af/Am, and WGSS on poverty, incarceration, Washington DC, and politics. In the spring of 2025, she will be in residence at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Fall 2024
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AMST-240 Poverty & Culture
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AMST-240 Poverty & Culture
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AMST-294 Comm Service Learning Project: Poverty & Culture
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AMST-294 Comm Service Learning Project: Poverty & Culture
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AMST-375 Race and Incarceration