Niya Bates is a PhD student at Princeton University in the History Department. Her current research interests include U.S. slavery and Reconstruction, Black radicalism, genealogy of families enslaved in Virginia, and rural cultural preservation. She has a B.A. in African and African American Studies and an M.A. in Architectural History and Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia.
For the past five years, Bates has worked in public history preserving rural African American community history in Central, VA. In that time, she also served as the director of African American history and the Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, CBS, The Today Show, NBC, PBS News Hour, ESPN The Undefeated, and Black Perspectives. Bates has been a guest on several podcasts and streaming platforms, including Oprah’s Book Club, Monty Don’s American Gardens, NPR’s All Things Considered, Sporkful with Dan Pashman, and Following Harriet.
