Nemata Blyden is a Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University. She holds a BA in History and International Relations from Mount Holyoke College and an MPhil and Ph.D. from Yale University. Dr. Blyden specializes in African and African Diaspora history. Last August Dr. Blyden co-authored “Between Africa and America: Recalibrating Black Americans' Relationship to the Diaspora, with Dr. Jeannette Eileen Jones. Her 2019 book, African Americans and Africa: A New History (Yale University Press) provides an introduction to the relationship between African Americans and the African Continent from the era of slavery to the present, examining the diversity of African American identities through relationships with region, ethnicity, immigration, and slavery to investigate a fundamental area of African American studies. She is the author of West Indians in West Africa, 1808-1880: A diaspora in reverse, (University of Rochester Press, 2000). Professor Blyden was a consultant for In Motion: The African American Migration Experience for the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (New York Public Library). Professor Blyden has lived in Africa, Europe, and the Soviet Union. She is married with three children and lives in Northern Virginia.
Dr. Blyden is a member of the James Dent Walker Chapter and served as our speaker at our May 15, 2021 meeting.
Thanks for highlighting Dr. Blyden! We are a very lucky Chapter to have her as a member. Her talk this morning was amazing!💥