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Assistant Professor of US History, Durham University

Kevin Waite is an assistant professor of U.S. history at Durham University and the author of 'West of Slavery: The Southern Dream of a Transcontinental Empire' (UNC Press, 2021). His next book is a history of the life and times of Biddy Mason, a Georgia slave turned California real estate entrepreneur. That work is funded by a Collaborative Research Grant for the National Endowment for the Humanities, which he co-directs with Prof. Sarah Barringer Gordon (University of Pennsylvania). Their project website is live at www.biddymasoncollaborative.com.

Kevin comments frequently on American history and politics for major media outlets. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, National Geographic, The Conversation, The Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, Slate, The New Republic, TIME, and The Washington Post, among others. One of those articles for the LA Times led to the removal of the oldest Confederate monument on the Pacific Coast. He has also spoken about his research on television and radio, including interviews with LBC, LBC News, BBC Radio 3, Metro Radio, NPR, and as a talking head for television documentaries on Channel 5 and the Yesterday Channel. He currently sits on Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Steering Committee for the creation of a memorial to the victims of the 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre, one of the largest mass lynchings in American history.

Kevin holds a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a BA (magna cum laude, phi beta kappa) from Williams College. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Experience

  • –present
    Assistant Professor of Modern American History, Durham University

Honours

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society