Dr Kathryn Schumaker

Kathryn Schumaker is a Senior Lecturer in American Studies at the United States Studies Centre. She holds a PhD in US history from the University of Chicago and a BA in American Studies from Northwestern University. Her work explores the intersections of race and gender in American law. Her first book, Troublemakers: Students' Rights and Racial Justice in the Long 1960s, examined how secondary students' protests against racial discrimination at school ignited litigation that led to the US Supreme Court recognising the constitutional rights of all public school students.

Kathryn is at work on two new research projects. The first is a history of interracial marriage in the era of racial segregation, when such unions were illegal in the United States. A book based on this project, Tangled Fortunes: The Hidden History of Interracial Marriage in the Jim Crow South, is forthcoming in 2025 with Basic Books. She is also at work on another project, also under contract with Basic Books, about the legal history of sheriffs in the US.

Kathryn has received research grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation, the American Society for Legal History, and the American Historical Association. In 2023, she was awarded an NEH Public Scholar Award for her project on interracial marriage.