Name: Jada Gannaway
Year in program: 6
ABD Y/N: Yes
Primary supervisor: Dr. Glenn Chambers
Major field: Caribbean History
Minor fields: African and African American History
Jada Gannaway is a doctoral candidate specializing in Caribbean History whose research centers on Black women’s political activism and the global dimensions of the Black Freedom struggle. Her dissertation, Unsung Heroines: A Political Biography of Altheia Jones-Lecointe, traces the life and legacy of the Trinidadian-born activist, situating her political work in both Trinidad and London during the Black Power Movement.
Gannaway’s research interests include Caribbean History, Black Left politics, Black Women’s History, and Comparative Black History. She is the 2024-2025 recipient of the prestigious Ruth Simms Hamilton Graduate Merit Fellowship and has received fellowships from the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS), CUNY Graduate Center, and Michigan State University’s Center for Gender in Global Context and GJEC program.
In 2023, she was awarded the Drusilla Dunjee Houston Award and published “Altheia Jones-Lecointe: Black Women Activists and Historical Scholarship” in Broadsides, the official blog of NACBS. In this piece, she explores the transnational dimensions of Black women’s activism and situates Jones-Lecointe within the broader context of the Black radical tradition.