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Jessica Millward

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Jessica Millward
BornJune 17
American Fork, Utah
EducationUniversity of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D
Occupation(s)Author, Historian, Educator
Employer(s)University of California, Irvine
Websitejessicamillward.com Twitter: @drjmil

   

Dr. Jessica Millward is an American historian who focuses on African American History, Early America, African Diaspora, Slavery, and Gender.[1] Dr. Millward’s work uncovers the female slave experience by emphasizing narratives of black women during slavery.   

Early Life

Jessica Millward was born on June 17 in the small town of American Fork, Utah. Along with three other siblings, Millward was raised in West Valley City, near Salt Lake City, in a Mormon household.[2] As a child, Dr. Millward’s hobbies included water skiing, cheerleading, dancing, and engaging in many other extra curricular activities.

Dr. Millward attended school from elementary through high school in West Valley City, Utah. During her graduation from Hunter High School in Utah, Dr. Millward had the honor of being a speaker during her graduation ceremony.[3]

Dr. Millward found interest in learning history, reading biographies and autobiographies, and going above and beyond with her schoolwork. In Hunter High School’s time capsule, there is a school history written by Dr. Millward.[4]

Education

At the University of Utah, Dr. Millward majored in history and minored in African American studies to earn her Bachelor’s Degree. After completing her Bachelor's Degree, a four-year scholarship was awarded to Dr. Millward to teach in secondary school in Utah. However, Dr. Millward decided to attend the University of California, Los Angeles, where she received her master’s degree in African American Studies and where she earned her Doctorate's Degree. Dr. Millward was the first person on either side of her family to attend college and earn her Ph.D. [5]

Maya Angelou’s book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, first sparked Dr. Millward’s interest to study African American history. Once in her master’s program, Dr. Brenda Stevenson became an advisor to Dr. Millward. Research completed by Dr. Brenda Stevenson intrigued Dr. Millward and encouraged her to study the slave experience. [6]Newly learned knowledge from personal accounts and interacting with Dr. Stevenson’s research became the foundation to Dr. Millward's book, Finding Charity’s Folk.

Career

University of California, Irvine

Dr. Millward is an assistant professor in the history department in the School of Humanities at the University of California, Irvine. Before teaching at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Millward taught African American history to a diverse student body at the Univeristy of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[7]

While at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Millward became a founder of the UCI Ghana Project.[8] The Ghana Project is a three-week, interdisciplinary research exchange program for students, faculty, and staff, at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Ghana, Legon.[9]

Dr. Millward is involved with many professional societies such as the American Historical Association, Association for the Study of the World Wide African Diaspora, Organization of American Historians, Association of Black Women Historians, Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Southern Association of Women Historians, Maryland Historical Society, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.[10]

Dr. Millward serves as the Farwestern regional Director for the Association of Black Women Historians. Dr. Millward is involved in many professional organizations but also is an advocate for survivors of domestic violence and an educator for Mumia.

Awards and Honors

In addition to being involved in professional societies, Dr. Millward has also received many honors throughout her career. Some of Dr. Millward’s honors include:

  • Association of American University Women Post Doctoral Fellowship, 2006-2007
  • Lord Baltimore Fellowship, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD, 2004–2006
  • Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, African-American Studies and Research
  • Program, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2003–2004
  • Nathan Huggins/Benjamin Quarles Dissertation Research Award, Organization of American Historians, 2003
  • Research Fellow, David Library of the American Revolution, Washington
  • Crossing, PA, 2001–2002
  • Recipient of the Association of Black Women’s Historians Letitia Woods Brown Award for best article on African American Women’s History, 2007[11]

Works

Finding Charity’s Folk

Finding Charity’s Folk is a book written by Dr. Millward and published by The University of Georgia Press in December of 2015. Dr. Millward complicates the experience of enslaved African American women earning their freedom in her research for Finding Charity's Folk. Finding Charity's Folk encompasses oral history, artifacts, photos, and personal accounts acquired over 15 years of research to share the narrative of enslaved women who had been silenced.[12] The book focuses on the actions of enslaved women as they took control of their lives by finding loopholes in the system and bargaining for freedom for themselves and their families. The life of Charity Folks is shared throughout the book as Dr. Millward captures the full story of a woman's life from enslavement to freedom. During the composition of the book, Dr. Millward located the genealogy associated with Charity Folks. [13]

Reviews

  • Review Essay, Thavolia Glymph, Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008) in The Journal of American History, June 2009, Vol. 96 Issue 1, 233.
  • Making Slavery: Making Race: The Experiences of Slave Women in the New World, Review Essay for H-Atlantic, Jennifer L. Morgan, Laboring Women: Gender and Reproduction in New World Slavery. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004 (July 2005).
  • Review Essay, Gad Heuman and James Walvin, Editors The Slavery Reader (New York: Routledge, 2003), in The Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History Vol. 1 (Spring 2005).

Encyclopedia Entries

  • “Manumission,” in Daina Ramey Berry, Ed., The Female Slave: An Encyclopedia of Daily Life During Slavery in the United States, (Greenwood, Ct: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2012): 187-190.
  • “Colonial America,” in Darlene Clark Hine, Editor. Black Women in America Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005: pp. 286–291.
  • “Tituba,” in Darlene Clark Hine, Editor. Black Women in America Encyclopedia, 2nd edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005: pp. 248–250.

References

  1. ^ "UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System". www.faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  2. ^ "Mumia: Vulnerability and Hope - The Feminist Wire". The Feminist Wire. 2014-01-23. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  3. ^ "GRADUATION: HUNTER". DeseretNews.com. 1991-06-07. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  4. ^ "GRADUATION: HUNTER". DeseretNews.com. 1991-06-07. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  5. ^ "Continuum - - Winter 2003". continuum.utah.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  6. ^ "UCLA History". www.history.ucla.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  7. ^ "Teaching African American History in the Age of Obama". www.academia.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  8. ^ "UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System". www.faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  9. ^ "UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System". www.faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  10. ^ "UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System". www.faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  11. ^ "UC Irvine - Faculty Profile System". www.faculty.uci.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
  12. ^ Millward, Jesiica (2015). Finding Charity's Folk: Enslaved and Free Black Women in Maryland. Athens, Georgia: The University of Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-4879-7.
  13. ^ "UCI News - New book offers insight into world of enslaved women in early America". UCI News. Retrieved 2016-05-17.

Explanatory Notes

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