By Daniel J. Fitzgibbons
AMHERST, Mass. – Barbara Krauthamer, dean of the Graduate School and professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, received the Lorraine A. Williams Leadership Award from the Association of Black Women Historians on Sept. 30 at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The award is given to an African-American woman historian in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievement, a demonstrated commitment to mentoring black women scholars, and leadership in organizations that create opportunities and promote the success of women of color.
A member of the UMass Amherst faculty since 2008, Krauthamer is widely recognized as a leading historian of African-American slavery and African-American women’s history. Her published work includes Black Slaves, Indian Masters: Slavery, Emancipation, and Citizenship in the Native American South. She is co-author of Envisioning Emancipation: Black Americans and the End of Slavery, which received a number of honors, most notably the 2013 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Non-fiction. Most recently, she co-edited Major Problems in African American History, one of the leading textbooks in the field. Forthcoming works include a study of Harriet Tubman, and encyclopedia of African-American cultural history, and a study of slave resistance during the era of the American Revolution.
She appears in the award-winning documentary film, Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People. Her research and books have been profiled in many national and international media outlets, including the New York Times, the CBS Evening News, National Public Radio, Pacifica Radio and CNN.
She served as associate dean for student inclusion and engagement in the Graduate School at UMass Amherst from 2015-17 and during that time created multiple fellowship programs designed to support the recruitment and retention of traditionally underrepresented graduate students. She initiated the Research Enhancement and Leadership Fellows program, the Summer Dissertation Fellows program and the STEM Faculty-Student Research Fellowship. The fellowship programs facilitate multiple mentoring pathways for graduate students to ensure that they have access to both financial resources and mentoring and support networks.
Krauthamer has a long record of service on and off campus. She is currently one of the Organization of American Historian’s Distinguished Lecturers. In November, she will assume the presidency of the Southern Association of Women Historians. She has served in leadership positions in a number of other professional organizations, including the Association of Black Women Historians, the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians, and the Southern Historical Association.
She sits on the board of trustees of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and on the board of the Samuel Harrison Society, also in Pittsfield.