Tyler D. Parry (Interdisciplinary Degree Programs) has been elected vice president of the African American Intellectual History Society, the fastest-growing organization dedicated to black studies. An assistant professor of African American and African diaspora studies, Parry conducts research examining slavery in the Americas, the African diaspora, and the historical memory of slavery in the United States. His first book, tentatively titled, Jumping the Broom: A Multicultural History (under contract with the University of North Carolina Press) is the first definitive examination of the “broomstick wedding,” a popular marital tradition usually associated with black Americans. Additionally, he is co-authoring a book with historian Charlton W. Yingling that examines how Europeans and Euro-Americans used canines to attack and subordinate black people who resisted slavery and oppression.
