About

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, Kenja McCray is a graduate of the Alabama School of Fine Arts.  She has a B.A. from Spelman College and an M.A. from Clark Atlanta University.  She earned a Ph.D. in history at Georgia State University, where she completed a dissertation titled “Complements to Kazi Leaders: Female Activists in Kawaida-Influenced Cultural-Nationalist Organizations, 1965-1987.”  Her areas of interest are the 19^th and 20^th century United States, African Americans, Africa and the diaspora, transnational histories, women, class and social history.  Kenja is also an associate professor of history at Atlanta Metropolitan State College (AMSC).  She teaches U.S. and African American history.  She works to help AMSC students gain a holistic college experience as an advisor of the Social Sciences Association.  She serves as a member of several campus and state university system committees including Honor’s Day and the Regents’ Academic Advisory Committee on History.  Kenja has also led tour groups, activities, and classes at Alabama’s Constitution Village and at the Atlanta History Center.  She is the recipient of the Association of Black Women Historians‘ Drusilla Dunjee Houston Award, winner of a graduate student paper prize at the Georgia Regional Conference of Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society, and was an AMSC nominee for the Regents’ Teaching Excellence Award.