Faculty Spotlight: Meet the College of Arts and Sciences’ Nemata Blyden

At UVA’s College of Arts and Sciences, Armstead L. Robinson Professor of 19th Century African American History, Nemata Blyden, is helping educate students and guide them on their path as the chair of the department of African American and African Studies. As the department chair, she teaches a few classes while still managing the department as a whole, which requires excellent time management and a passion for what she does. We sat down with Nemata to hear about her research, her experiences teaching, and what she enjoys most about UVA.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, your role at UVA, and the path that brought you here?

A: I am a professor of African American and African studies. I came to UVA in 2023, so I’m relatively new. I was at another institution in Washington D.C. for 22 years before I came here. So, although I’ve only been here for two years, I was a UVA parent many years ago. My daughter is a 2013 graduate so it’s kind of full circle to be faculty here now.

Q: What are some of the courses you currently teach?

A: I teach a wide variety. I’m chairing the department right now so I’m not teaching a whole bunch, but I teach classes on African American and African history. For the last two years I have taught the large Introduction to African American and African studies, and that’s a huge entry level course, where we introduce students to our themes and issues in the study of African Americans and Africa and the major, and that draws about 150 to 180 students so that’s been the class I have taught for the longest.

Q: What first inspired you to pursue this field of study?

A: My family history — I come from a long line of people who traveled the African American, African diaspora world. I grew up listening to family stories about one ancestor in particular, and that got me interested in history. I was going to go to law school, but then I took a wonderful history class with a professor at the small college I went to in Massachusetts. I fell in love with the field and decided to do a Ph.D. in history.

Q: What current projects or research are you working on and most excited about?

A: When I have time, I’ve been working on a family history. It’s a global Black family history that traces and tells the story of spaces in the Atlantic world, the Caribbean, Africa, the United States, through the eyes of a family. I’m on leave next semester, so I’m excited about delving in and doing more research.

Q: What do you find the most rewarding about teaching and being a part of the UVA community?

A: I think the students. I teach the big intro classes, which doesn’t give you much opportunity to interact with students one on one. This semester I’m teaching a class that is largely based on the book I wrote that looks at African Americans and their engagement with Africa. It’s a smaller class and I’m able to interact with students. I’m learning, in some ways for the first time, about students at UVA and I’m really loving it. I used to work a lot with undergraduate students at my old institution so I’m happy to be back doing that. As chair, I’m also trying to expose students to our department and our major, I engage with undergraduate students in that way. I think it’s the students that I find the most enjoyable to work with.

Q: What advice do you have for students or professionals considering this field?

A: The big part about it is it’s increasingly harder to get into academia as a faculty member, so I tell students who are interested in going for a Ph.D. in history to think long and hard, to take some time off between undergrad and grad to work and find out if there are other things you are interested in before you proceed because it’s a long haul and at the end of it it’s very competitive. That’s the biggest advice I give to students, but encourage them to do what you enjoy.

Q: What is a fun fact about yourself that your students or colleagues may not know?

A: I lived in the Soviet Union for three and a half years as a child. I’ve thought hard about that question, my first answer was going to be I do yoga, but my students know that about me because I talk about it all the time. A lot of people I work with, and my students don’t know that I lived in Russia.

Q: Have you ever visited the UVA Northern Virginia campus and if so, what was your favorite part about it?

A: Yes, last spring. The bright spaces and the quiet rooms, I loved going in and finding a little quiet room to work in. It helps that you all provide snacks, but really, I liked the spaciousness of the place, it’s bright and welcoming, and the privacy of being able to go into a room if you want to. I really enjoyed it, it was fabulous. I’m strategizing about how to possibly have an event for alumni in our department up there.