Niya Bates

Position
Doctoral Candidate
Affiliation
Department of African American Studies & Department of History
Bio/Description

Niya Bates is a graduate student in the History Department and Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Her research interests include U.S. slavery, Reconstruction, rural Black communities, and Black environmentalism. Prior to attending Princeton, Bates worked as a public historian and historic preservationist in Virginia and directed the Getting Word African American Oral History Project at Monticello. She earned a B.A. in African and African American Studies and an M.A. in Architectural History with a certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia. Niya was born and raised in Charlottesville, VA and is a descendant of several families who were enslaved in that area.