
The Race and the American Story Project was created by Adam Seagrave and Stephanie Shonekan while they worked together at the University of Missouri. Since then, it has been brought to Arizona State University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where the program has continued to grow.
Adam Seagrave is Associate Professor and Associate Director of the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. He is also Associate Director of the Center for Political Thought and Leadership within the School. Seagrave received his PhD in Political Theory from the University of Notre Dame and has taught at Pepperdine University, the University of Notre Dame, Northern Illinois University, and in the Kinder Institute at the University of Missouri before joining ASU in 2018.
Stephanie Shonekan is Professor and Chair of the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. In 2003, she earned a PhD in Ethnomusicology and Folklore with a minor in African American Studies from Indiana University. From 2003-2011, she taught at Columbia College Chicago, and from 2011-2018, she was a faculty member at the University of Missouri in the Black Studies Department and the School of Music. From 2015-2018, she was chair of the Department of Black Studies at the University of Missouri.
Other participating faculty include:
Stephen Graves
Assistant Professor of Black Studies, University of Missouri
April Langley
Associate Professor of English and Black Studies and Chair of the Department of Black Studies, University of Missouri
Justin Dyer
Professor of Political Science and Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, University of Missouri
Sarah Beth Kitch
Assistant Professor of Public Affairs, University of Missouri
Scott Brooks
Associate Professor, T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, and Associate Director for Research, Global Sport Institute, Arizona State University
Rodolfo Hernandez
Kinder Institute Postdoctoral Fellow in Political Thought and Constitutionalism, University of Missouri