Sasha Turner, associate professor of history at Quinnipiac University, recently received an award from the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH).
Turner was presented with a 2018 Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Book, Anthology, and Article Award for her article, “The Nameless and the Forgotten: Maternal Grief, Sacred Protection, and the Archive of Slavery.”
Turner’s article was published in the journal, Slavery & Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies. She received the award at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History’s 103rd annual meeting earlier this month in Indianapolis, Indiana. This is the second award for the article. Earlier this year, the African American Intellectual History Society awarded the article the Maria Stewart Prize for the best journal article in black intellectual history.
Turner, who joined Quinnipiac in 2010, has a doctorate of history and a master of philosophy from the University of Cambridge. She also has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of West Indies, Mona.
The competition was open to all books, anthologies and articles concerning African American women’s history published between June 1, 2017, and May 30, 2018, including those written by members and non-members of ABWH.
Turner explores enslaved women’s emotional responses to losing their children and brings critical attention to an aspect of black women’s history largely ignored by historians.
“To have my article recognized this way by the ABWH affirms the importance of historical inquiry that centers on black mothers and children and recognizes the invisible losses inflicted by the enslavement of Africans and their descendants.”