About

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor is a Professor in the Department of African-American Studies at Princeton University, serving as the Acting Chair for the academic year 2026-2027. She is a scholar of racial inequality in public policy making and the various ways that Black communities have challenged or resisted these constraints. Taylor writes extensively on race and politics, Black social movements and organizing, and radical activism and politics. Her research includes examining the retreat from the promise of civil rights in the 1980s and the widening social, economic, and political chasms in Black America. She is the author of several notable books, including 'Race for Profit,' which explores how banks and the real estate industry undermined Black homeownership, and 'From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation,' which has received significant recognition. Taylor has been awarded numerous honors, including a MacArthur Foundation 'Genius' Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the designation of Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians. She is also a contributing writer for The New Yorker and is involved in various initiatives and projects that focus on race, social movements, and activism.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Sociology
• Art
• Criminology
• Geography
• Law
• Psychology
• Art history
• Gender studies
• Economic geography

Selected publications

• The Emerging Movement for Police and Prison Abolition

  Broadleaf Books · 2024 · 14 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Criminology
  • Political Science
  PublisherDOI

• Introduction

  The Journal of African American History · 2023-06-01

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Roundtable: Defining the Black 1980s

  The Journal of African American History · 2023-06-01

  articleSenior author

  To begin this special issue on the Black 1980s, we asked some of the leading thinkers in the area of post–Civil Rights era Black politics, culture, and society to help us to wrestle with issues of chronology, historiography, and the complicated connections between African Americans and the Black world in this crucial decade. In particular, we wanted to begin a conversation about how we define the Black 1980s and what impact focusing on the period will have on larger discussions of Black life in the post–Civil Rights period as well as of US politics and culture.

  PublisherDOI

• VI. Black Lives Matter : plus qu’un moment, un mouvement

  Cairn.info · 2022-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Index général

  Cairn.info · 2022-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• II. Des droits civiques à l’indifférence à la race

  Cairn.info · 2022-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• VII. De #BlackLivesMatter à la libération noire

  Cairn.info · 2022-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• From Color-Blind to Black Lives Matter:

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-04-12

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• 11 From Color-Blind to Black Lives Matter RACE, CLASS , AND POLITICS UNDER TRUMP

  Princeton University Press eBooks · 2022-03-30

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• IV. Une justice à deux vitesses

  Cairn.info · 2022-01-01

  other1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

Frequent coauthors

• George Derek Musgrove

  1 shared

• Nikhil Pal Singh

  1 shared

• Timothy Shenk

  1 shared

• Shoniqua Roach

  1 shared

• Jafari S. Allen

  1 shared

• Joshua Guild

  1 shared

• N. D. B. Connolly

  University of Waikato

  1 shared

• Alyssa Battistoni

  Barnard College

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Lannan Cultural Freedom Award for an Especially Notable Book…
• Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ nonfiction (2018)
• MacArthur Foundation "Genius" Fellowship (2021)
• Inaugural cohort of Freedom Scholars funded by the Marguerit…
• Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Hist…