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Tanisha is an acclaimed writer, historian, and professor working at the intersection of politics and culture.
Meet the Author
BOOKS BY TANISHA
In graduate school, I began developing the method that would come to define my scholarship: eclectic archiving.
I am an interdisciplinary historian. This means that historical methods ground my research, but I understand that I must use them in conjunction with other methods to reveal things for which the archive cannot account or explain. I expand an archive of paper records to include objects like family heirlooms, yearbooks, album covers, and vintage restaurant menus.
Eclectic archiving is the means by which I assemble and read these objects, vis-a-vis manuscript collections, oral interviews, and cultural ephemera. I take into account that objects have a different texture than paper documents - they live and breathe differently.
When I account for their different textures and tones, the result is a written body of work or a visual story that is multi-dimensional - ALIVE! - in its variegated narrative work. I love to piece together vibrant, untold histories of women who came of age during the turbulent 1960s. I aim to write stories that allow us to be messy and flawed, fully HUMAN. Learn more about my journey.
I won an NAACP Image Award
I was honored to win an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work-- Biography/Autobiography for my latest book, Our Secret Society! It's always a joy to be recognized for the years of work I put into a project. I'd always dreamed of winning an Image award, but couldn't believe it when it actually happened. I flew out to Los Angeles to attend the award ceremony and afterparty. A time was had. Many thank yous to everyone who helped me birth Our Secret Society.
Our Secret Society Gets Recognized
Our Secret Society received Honorable Mention for the Organization of American Historians' Darlene Clark Hine Award. It was also named one of Vanity Fair's and Ms. Magazine's Best Books of 2023. The African American Intellectual History Society recognized it as one of the Best Black History Books of 2023. Zoomer magazine named it a Best Books for Activists and Allies. And It was Brown Girl Collective's Favorite Herstory Book of 2023. I had the great pleasure of discussing Our Secret Society on NPR's Fresh Air!
Partnering with the Smithsonian
I've been named a Smithsonian Research Associate, affiliated with the National Museum of American History. I am excited to work with a team of brilliant curators and scholars on a multi-year African American Fundraising Initiative. This project is richly aligned with my new research on Black women's philanthropy and the cultural-economics of money in urban communities.
Tanisha’s lectures take audiences on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, making history come alive for them in fresh new ways. She is also a thoughtful and innovative consultant who brings more than a decade of experience advising organizations—from the Chicago History Museum to Essence—on how to ethically and fastidiously center race and gender issues in the content they produce. She also advises corporations on ways to foster equity in the workplace.
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