Jeanne Theoharis

Jeanne Theoharis
OccupationProfessor of Political Science
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University,
University of Michigan
Genrenon-fiction
Notable awardsNAACP Image Award,
Peabody Award
ParentsAthan Theoharis (father)[1]
RelativesLiz Theoharis (sister)[2]

Jeanne Theoharis is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College.[3]

Early life

Jeanne Theoharis was born to activist Nancy Artinian and professor Athan Theoharis. She was raised in Fox Point, Wisconsin a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin near the campus of Marquette University where her father taught. She has two siblings Liz Theoharis co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign, and George Theoharis a professor of education, at Syracuse University.[4]

Career

Jeanne Theoharis graduated from Harvard College in 1991 with dual concentrations in Afro-American, and Women's Studies.[5] She then went on to pursue a PhD, at the University of Michigan in American Culture.[6][7] Theoharis is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College at the CUNY. In her work as a political science professor she specializes in contemporary politics of race and gender, social policy, urban studies and 20th century African American history.[8] Theoharis is also the author of numerous books and articles on the Black freedom struggle, including the NAACP Image award-winning The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks and A More Beautiful and Terrible History, which won the 2018 Brooklyn Public Library Prize in Nonfiction.  Theoharis' book The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks was adapted into an award-winning  documentary directed by Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen and executive produced by Soledad O'Brien for NBC-Peacock, where she served as a consulting producer.  The documentary won a Peabody Award and a Television Academy Honor Award.

In 2013, Theoharis co-created, a roundtable discussion program entitled Conversations in Black Freedom Studies at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture with Sarah Lawrence professor Komozi Woodard, and Lehman College professor Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine. The series features a roundtable of scholars and writers on the first Thursday of each month speaking on a topic in Black history, usually centered around a new book(s) in the field.[9]

Theoharis has also worked as a faculty coleader in the Narrating Change, Changing Narratives research group of the 2014-2016 Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research.[10]

Theoharis speaks in 2020

Works

Essays
  • Theoharis, Jeanne, 2016. "MLK Would never shut down a freeway and 6 other myths about the civil rights movement and Black Lives Matter", The Root, July 15.
  • Theoharis, Jeanne, Burgin, Say, 2015. "Rosa Parks wasn't Meek, Passive or Naive--and 7 Other Things You Probably Didn't Learn in School", The Nation, December 1.
  • Marchevsky, Alejandra, and Jeanne Theoharis, 2006. Not working: Latina immigrants, low-wage jobs, and the failure of welfare reform. NYU Press.
  • Marchevsky, Alejandra, Theoharis, Jeanne, 2016. "Why It Matters That Hillary Clinton Championed Welfare Reform", The Nation, March 1.
  • Coauthored: "Charlottesville belies racism’s deep roots in the North".[11]
  • The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks. Beacon Press. 29 January 2013. ISBN 978-0-8070-5048-4.[12]
Books
Editor

Awards and honors

  • 2013 Letitia Woods Brown Award from the Association of Black Women Historians, The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks[13]
  • 2018 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Award for Nonfiction, A More Beautiful and Terrible History; The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History[16]

References

  1. ^ Sandomir, Richard (10 July 2021). "Athan Theoharis, Chronicler of F.B.I. Abuses, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  2. ^ Sandomir, Richard (10 July 2021). "Athan Theoharis, Chronicler of F.B.I. Abuses, Dies at 84". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  3. ^ "Brooklyn College - Faculty Profile". cuny.edu. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
  4. ^ Higgins, Jim (8 July 2021). "Marquette's Athan Theoharis used Hoover's secret files to document the FBI's illegal actions". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Gannett. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  5. ^ Forman, Ross G. (9 June 1988). "To Catch A Fly: SWAT". thecrimson.com. The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  6. ^ "American Culture University of Michigan". College of Literature, Science, and the Arts: American Culture University of Michigan. Regents of the University of Michigan. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  7. ^ "Theoharis, Jeanne". www.gc.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  8. ^ "Theoharis, Jeanne". www.gc.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  9. ^ Baskin, Lucien (28 February 2023). "Conversations in Black Freedom Studies: An Interview". Black Perspectives. African American Intellectual History Society. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  10. ^ "Jeanne Theoharis". The Center for the Humanities. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  11. ^ Purnell, Brian J.; Theoharis, Jeanne (16 August 2018). "Charlottesville belies racism's deep roots in the North". The Conversation. Retrieved 2023-05-01.
  12. ^ Nell Irvin Painter (March 29, 2013). "Mother of the Movement". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 August 2015. Richly informative, calmly passionate and much needed, "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks" completes the portrait of a working-class activist who looked poverty and discrimination squarely in the face and never stopped rebelling against them, in the segregated South and in the segregated North.
  13. ^ "The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks". penguinrandomhouse.com. Penguin Random House. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  14. ^ "Brooklyn College - Political Science Professor Wins NAACP Image Award for Book on Rosa Parks". cuny.edu. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
  15. ^ "Jeanne Theoharis speaks about Rosa Parks book today at Carnegie Mellon". Pittsburgh City Paper. Retrieved 2015-08-07.
  16. ^ "The Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize". 2017-03-20.
  17. ^ "Winner 2022: The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks". peabodyawards.com. Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  18. ^ VERHOEVEN, Beatrice (27 April 2023). "'Mo,' 'We're Here' Among 2023 Television Academy Honors". The Hollywood Reporter. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved 10 May 2023.