Dr. Blair Kelley comes to the Center with a stellar record as both a scholar and leader, having most recently served as the Joel R. Williamson Distinguished Professor of Southern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was also director of the Center for the Study of the American South and co-director of Southern Futures. Previously, Kelley spent 20 years on the faculty and as an administrator at North Carolina State University, including as associate dean of interdisciplinary affairs and partnerships. Throughout her career, Dr. Kelley has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to fostering intellectual communities and championing the humanities across diverse platforms.
In her scholarly work, Dr. Kelley has offered profound insights into the lives of working-class African Americans and the history of social movements, and helped connect historical narratives about race, work, and activism with contemporary issues. Her bestselling recent book, Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class (2023), received the 2024 Brooklyn Library Book Award, the 2024 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Book Award, the 2024 Philip Taft Labor History Prize, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in History. It was also hailed as one of the best books of the year by Smithsonian magazine, Amazon Editors, and the African American Intellectual History Society. In 2024, she was named one of the Top 40 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine.
A sought-after commentator, Kelley has appeared on NPR’s Marketplace, Here & Now, and Fresh Air, MSNBC’s All in with Chris Hayes, The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart, Velshi, and the Into America podcast. She has also written for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Root, The Grio, and The Daily Beast.
Kelley succeeds J. Porter Durham Jr., who served as interim president of the Center since the retirement of Robert D. Newman in 2024. She is the first woman, the first person of color, and the first NHC Fellow to lead the Center.
Kelley received her BA from the University of Virginia in history and African and African American studies. She earned her MA and PhD in history, and graduate certificates in African and African American studies and women’s studies at Duke University. She was recently made a fellow of the Society of American Historians.