TRACYE A. MATTHEWS

Executive Director
tracye@uchicago.edu
773.702.8063

Tracye is a curator, filmmaker, and historian who bridges academia, public history, museums, and documentary film. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago, having previously been a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow.

Her curatorial projects include exhibitions and public programs for institutions such as the Chicago History Museum, the DuSable Museum of African American History, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Tracye has held various roles in documentary filmmaking and was awarded a fellowship from the Wexner Center for the Arts to work on a semi-autobiographical documentary exploring adoption in African American communities. Most recently, she produced the Academy Award©-shortlisted documentary short, '63 Boycott, with Kartemquin Films.

Previously, she was an assistant professor in the Africana Studies Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her writing has appeared in anthologies and journals, including Race and Class and The Black Panther Party Reconsidered. Her groundbreaking article on gender and the Black Panther Party is frequently cited in Panther studies. Tracye earned her Ph.D. in American History from the University of Michigan, where she directed the Ella Baker-Nelson Mandela Center for Anti-Racist Education.