Kaimara Herron
Graduate Student
History
Pronouns: She/Her
About
Program: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
Start Year: 2021
Advisor: Dr. Cynthia Blair
Kaimara Herron is a Ph.D student interested in 19th and 20th century Black women’s labor, the South, collective memory, and public history/the archive. She is particularly interested in how Black women’s subjectivities and labors are constructed and memorialized in public discourse. Since graduating from college, Kaimara has worked in a number of archives and local history museums in Colorado, Mississippi, and Illinois. Originally from Chicago, Kaimara enjoys film photography and spending time with her family.
Notable Honors
2019-2025, Access to Excellence Fellowship, University of Illinois at Chicago
2019, Glover-Moore Prize for Best Master’s Thesis on a Topic in Mississippi History, Mississippi Historical Society and The Mississippi Department of History and Archives
2019, Tennin-Alexander Prize for Best Non-Thesis Graduate Paper, Arch Dalrymple III Department of History, University of Mississippi
2016, Keller Family Venture Grant, Colorado College
Education
BA, Colorado College, 2016.
MA, University of Mississippi, 2019.
PhD, University of Illinois, Chicago, Anticipated 2026.
Selected Presentations
- “In the Hands of Responsible Persons: Social Services, Memory, and Politics in the Mississippi State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs,” Mississippi Historical Society. Natchez, Mississippi. 2019.
- “Queer Mississippi: Oral History Performance,” Southeastern Women’s Studies Association. University, Mississippi. 2019.
- “Queer Mississippi: Oral History Performance,”Southern Studies: LGBTQ and Oral History Performance. Oxford, Mississippi. 2018.