Natanya Duncan
Natanya Duncan is an Assistant Professor of History and Africana Studies with an affiliate status in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Lehigh University. A historian of the African Diaspora, her research and teaching focus on global freedom movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. Duncan’s research interests include constructions of identity and nation building amongst women of color; migrations; color and class in Diasporic communities; and the engagements of intellectuals throughout the African Diaspora. Her current book manuscript, Crossing Waters & Fighting Tides: The Efficient Womanhood of the UNIA, focuses on the distinct activist strategies enacted by women in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which Duncan calls an “efficient womanhood.” Following the ways women in the UNIA scripted their own understanding of Pan Africanism, Black Nationalism, and constructions of Diasporic Blackness, the book traces the blending of nationalist and gendered concerns amongst prominent and lesser-known Garveyite women. Duncan’s publications include several works that explore the leadership models of UNIA women. Her research has appeared in the Journal of Liberty Hall (2017), the Journal of New York History (2014), and The American South and the Atlantic World (University of Florida Press, 2013).
