Nicole Brown

Ph.D.

Email: [[e|ncbrown]]
Research Interests: Intersectional relationship between 18th century religion, education, and the institution of slavery; literacy of enslaved peoples; African American education in colonial Virginia; enslaved narratives and oral histories; race, gender, and power dynamics in the 18th century British Empire; charitable institutions in the British Empire

Biography

Nicole Brown is currently the Graduate Assistant for the William & Mary Bray School Lab and a PhD Candidate in American Studies at William & Mary; she was previously a Program Design Manager at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

As a first-person historical interpreter, Brown also portrays a variety of women from the Colonial and Antebellum Eras. Some of these individuals include Ann Wager, the eighteenth-century white teacher at the Williamsburg Bray School, and Monticello’s Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.

Her ongoing academic research focuses on the intersection of Black literacy and revolution in the Atlantic World via interdisciplinary and descendant-engaged scholarship. Brown’s work as a museum professional has also taken her across the globe, presenting on interpretive techniques for “hard” histories at museums and historic sites in the United States. Brown recently co-edited a book entitled The Williamsburg Bray School, 1760-1774: A History Through Records, Reflections, and Rediscovery.