The four new Dean’s research associates have a minimal teaching load, are mentored and supported, and participate in a CSS Dean’s Research Associate Development Institute, with the goal of a possible transition into tenure-system positions at Michigan State University after two years of specified levels of productivity.
Nakia Parker
Department of History
I am a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at The University of Texas at Austin under the direction of Dr. Daina Ramey Berry. My project, “Trails of Tears and Freedom: Slavery, Migration, and Emancipation in the Indian Territory Borderlands, 1830-1907,” examines the forced migrations, resettlement patterns, and labor practices of people of African and black Indian descent enslaved in Choctaw and Chickasaw communities during the nineteenth century. My research has received generous funding from The University of North Texas, the Texas State Historical Association, the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South, the Mellon Scholars Program at the Library Company in Philadelphia, and the Western History Association. In 2018, I was awarded the Huggins-Quarles Dissertation Award from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) and a 2018-19 American Association of University Women (AAUW) Dissertation Fellowship. I have a co-authored essay on women and slavery in the Oxford Handbook of American Women’s and Gender History, and a forthcoming article in the East Texas Historical Journal chronicling the life of controversial nineteenth century Texas politician Hal Geiger. From June 2014 to December 2016, I served as the National Graduate Student Representative for the Association of Black Women Historians.
Reason for Applying
My first interaction with MSU faculty and students occurred when I attended the Cross-Generational Dialogues in Black Women’s History Symposium in 2015. The innovative scholarship and genuine camaraderie I saw there left a deep impression on me and played a major factor in my decision to apply for the position. I believe my scholarship and teaching will improve and thrive in the interdisciplinary community of scholars at Michigan State University. I especially look forward to working closely with the other fellows at the CSS Development Institute and with faculty and students in the History Department.
For more information about the program and the hires visit http://www.socialscience.msu.edu/about-us/news/deans-research-associate-program-makes-first-formal-hires/.