Antoinette Jackson, professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida, recently received the John Lewis Award for History and Social Justice from the American Historical Association. Presented annually since 2021, the prize recognizes a historian for leadership and sustained engagement at the intersection of historical work, public culture, and social justice.
Dr. Jackson was honored for her work to recover and restore Black cemeteries. As founder and director of the Black Cemetery Network, she has been able to retrieve a rich but forgotten history of Black cemeteries as an integral part of Black life in the United States. Her work is collaborative and frequently engages local communities and civic organizations that want to preserve their histories as a resource for both current and future residents.
A faculty member at the University of South Florida since 2005, Dr. Jackson currently serves as chair of the anthropology department and director of the USF Living Heritage Institute. She is the author of two books: Heritage, Tourism, and Race – The Other Side of Leisure (Routledge, 2020) and Speaking for the Enslaved: Heritage Interpretation at Antebellum Plantation Sites (Routledge, 2012).
Dr. Jackson holds a bachelor’s degree in computer and information science from Ohio State University, an MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of Florida.
