Prof. Mary Ellen Curtin received her PhD from Duke University, and currently teaches in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies (CRGC) at American University in Washington DC. Broadly speaking, her research examines African American life in the South after emancipation, with an expansive view of how Black communities both endured and responded to ongoing racist oppression and violence. Her most recent book, She Changed the Nation: Barbara Jordan’s Life and Legacy in Black Politics, (2024) examines Jordan’s emergence as a nationally recognized southern Black woman political leader, orator, and leading Democrat, who sought to move the Black struggle from protest to electoral politics. She is currently a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Humanities and Social Sciences at the Faculty of English, AMU.