Gordon-Reed, a graduate of Harvard Law School, teaches courses on slavery and law and is the editor of Race On Trial: Law and Justice in American History, and coauthor with Vernon Jordan of Vernon Can Read: A Memoir.
Winning the National Book Awards top prize has generated increased attention from the media and others for her work and brought a flood of requests for speaking engagements and greetings from old acquaintances, but so far has not interfered with her work as an academic, she says. She was wrapping up a semester of classes and planning for finals when Diverse spoke with her last week.
Writing history is an extension of her work as an academic, says Gordon-Reed.
“It fits in naturally to what I do,” she says. “There are three components to an academic life. Teaching students, working in community and the third pillar is scholarship. This is scholarship.”
Annette Gordon-Reed became the first African American woman to win the National Book Award for non-fiction, for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. The book begins with Sally's mother, Elizabeth, born in 1735, and ends with the beginning of the family's dispersal in 1826 after Jefferson's death.
Here she talks about the book in a promotional video prior to receiving the book award in November.Click Here to watch
Email the editor: editor@diverseeducation.com
Click here to post and read comments
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
