Erik McDuffie, Assistant Professor
Contact
African American Studies
and Gender and Womens Studies
1201 W. Nevada
217.333.7781
emcduffi@illinois.edu
Biography
Erik S. McDuffie is an Assistant Professor in African American Studies and in the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Professor McDuffie’s research and teaching interests include African American women’s activism, black feminism, black radicalism and internationalism, and the making of the African Diaspora. His current book project re-evaluates the histories of the Black Freedom Movement, American radicalism, and U.S. Women’s Movement by arguing that the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) helped nurture a radical black feminism and provided a small group of black women radicals with unique opportunities to lead social movements with links to the global stage. His most recent publication appears in Michael Gomez’s edited collection Diasporic Africa: A Reader (NYU Press, 2006).
Professor McDuffie is a recipient of the Arnold O. Beckman Award from the University of Illinois in 2006 and the inaugural Louis E. Burnham Award in 2003. Dr. McDuffie has presented his work at meetings of the Association for the Study of Worldwide African Diaspora, National Council for Black Studies, Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, American Historical Association, and Organization of American Historians. He earned his Ph.D. in History with a focus on the African Diaspora from New York University in 2003.