Awards

2024

Guggenheim Fellowship, 2024

American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2024


2023

Harriet Tubman Prize, Lapidus Center for Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery, New York Public Library, 2023

Frederick Douglass Book Prize, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Yale University, Co-winner, 2023

National Council on Public History Book Award, 2023

Equity Award, American Historical Association, 2023

Joan Kelly Prize in women’s History/feminist history, American Historical Association, 2023

Grier Prize (for most significant article)Winterthur Portfolio journal, 2023


2022

Cundill History Prize, McGill University, 2022

Massachusetts Book Award, Nonfiction, Massachusetts Center for the Book, 2022

Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa Society, 2022

Finalist, Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History, Boston, 2022

Darlene Clark Hine Award in African American women’s and gender history, Organization of American Historians, 2022

Lawrence W. Levine Award in American cultural history, Organization of American Historians, 2022

John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction, PEN America, 2022

Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction, The Cleveland Foundation, Co-winner, 2022


2021

National Book Award for Nonfiction, National Book Foundation, 2021

Finalist, Mark Lynton History Prize, Columbia University, 2021

Finalist, Kirkus Prize, Nonfiction, Kirkus Reviews, 2021


2018

Frederick Douglass Book Prize, Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Yale University, Co-winner, 2018

Finalist, John Hope Franklin Book Prize, American Studies Association, 2018

American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation, 2018

Woman of Vision Award, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, 2018

National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholars Grant, 2017-2018 


2017

Merle Curti Award in Social History, Organization of American Historians, 2017

James A. Rawley Prize in the History of Race Relations, Organization of American Historians, 2017

James Bradford Best Biography Prize, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, 2017

Michigan Notable Book Award, Library of Michigan, 2017


2016

Bronze Medal in Multicultural Fiction, Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2016

Finalist, Lambda Literary Awards, Lesbian Novel, 2016


2015

Books All Georgians Should Read Award, Georgia Center for the Book, 2015

Dorothy Schweider Prize, best article on Midwestern history, Midwestern History Association, 2015

Mellon Foundation New Directions in the Humanities Fellowship, 2014-2015


2011

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellow (MacArthur Prize), 2011

Erminie Wheeler-Voegelin Best Book Award, American Society for Ethnohistory, 2011

Georgia Historical Society Lilla M. Hawes Book Award, 2011

Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Ten Most Influential Books of the First Decade of the 21st Century Prize, 2011

National Council on Public History Book Award, 2011


2010

A. Elizabeth Taylor Prize for the best article in southern women’s history, Southern Association for Women Historians, 2010


2007

Hiett Prize in the Humanities, Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 2007


2006

Lora Romero Distinguished First Book Award, American Studies Association, 2006

Faculty Cornerstone Award, Black Celebratory Graduation, University of Michigan, 2006

Frederick Jackson Turner Award (for a first book in American history), Organization of American Historians, 2006


2005

Outstanding Teaching Award, Panhellenic Association and Interfraternity Council, University of Michigan, 2005


2001

Finalist, Ralph Henry Gabriel Dissertation Prize, American Studies Association, 2001