Dr. Monica Kristin Blair is a public historian who specializes in histories of education and racial inequality in America. She currently works as the Historian & Education Coordinator for the Hopkins Retrospective Project at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Blair has a Ph.D. in United States history from the University of Virginia and a background in research, teaching, and public and digital humanities. She believes that a combination of deep historical research and community-based approaches to public history are key to building just and inclusive educational spaces. Dr. Blair is also writing a book about the history of racial inequality in the K-12 school privatization movement entitled: Private Schools, Public Money: The Modern History of School Choice.

Education

  • PhD., United States History, University of Virginia, 2021
  • MA., History, University of Georgia, 2015
  • BA., History, University of Florida, 2013

Public History Experience

  • 2022-Present, Historian & Education Coordinator, Hopkins Retrospective Project, Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University
  • 2020-Present, Naming of Facilities Committee Member, Charlottesville City Schools, Charlottesville, Va
  • 2021-2022: Postdoctoral Fellow & Executive Producer of The Past, The Promise, The Presidency podcast, Southern Methodist University
  • 2018-2019: Lead Researcher, BackStory podcast, Virginia Humanities
  • 2019: Researcher, Committee on Renaming, University of Virginia School of Education
  • 2017-2018: Praxis Fellow, UVA Reveal, University of Virginia
  • 2016: Graduate Researcher, The President’s Commission on Slavery and Jefferson’s University—the Early Life Project, University of Virginia
  • 2012-2013: Archival Assistant, George A. Smathers Special Collections Library, University of Florida
  • 2012-2013: Docent, Historic Haile Homestead at Kanapaha Plantation, Gainesville, Florida
  • 2011: Intern, Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, University of Virginia

Teaching Experience

  • Instructor, US History Since WWII: People, Politics, Power, University of Virginia
  • Head Teaching Assistant, Whiteness: History of a Racial Category, University of Virginia
  • Teaching Assistant, Intro to American Studies, S. Foreign Policy Since 1914, University of Virginia
  • Teaching Assistant, US History to 1865, US History Since 1865, University of Georgia
  • Instructor, Civil and Environmental Law, Duke Talent Identification Program
  • Teaching Assistant, Government and Public Policy, Duke Talent Identification Program