Anne Kerth studies the 19th century United States, with a focus on African American history.  Her current dissertation project, "Art, Trade, and Mystery: African American Artisan Labor in Nineteenth Century South Carolina," examines the vital role played by African American artisans in nineteenth century South Carolina’s economy and society, with particular focus on the transformations wrought by emancipation and industrialization.

In May 2015 she completed general exam fields in: U.S. History, 1789-1920 (Sean Wilentz and Rebecca Rix), African-American History, 1619-1980 (Tera Hunter), and Comparative Gender and Sexuality (Regina Kunzel).

Kerth received a B.A. magna cum laude from Williams College, majoring with highest honors in History and minoring in Africana Studies. Her senior thesis, "Missouri Compromised: The Daily Missouri Democrat, Party Politics, and the Coming of the Civil War," which used the political editorials of a St. Louis newspaper to explore the collapse of the nation's political party system in the years preceding the Civil War, won the William Bradford Turner Prize. Before matriculating at Princeton, she spent two years in Jeongeup, South Korea completing a Fulbright grant as an English Teaching Assistant.