Da'Von Boyd

Background

Dr. Da'Von Boyd is an Assistant Professor of Government and Africana Studies. He earned his doctorate in African American Studies and Political Science from Yale University as a Beinecke Scholar. His research, The Black Spirit: Theorizing Black Political Theology in the Long Civil Rights Movement, offers a rich and new theoretical and historical account of Black political theology’s role in constructing the philosophical, ethical, and political design of the civil rights movement by reexamining the political theories of its’ preeminent organizations, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Nation of Islam, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Dr. Boyd was awarded the 2021 Alex Willingham Best Political Theory Paper Award for his research at the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Moreover, he received the Prize Teaching Fellowship—one of the “highest honors that a graduate student can attain at Yale” that “recognizes outstanding performance and promise as a teacher” —, Poorvu Center’s Teaching Innovation Grant, Sterling Prize Fellowship, and was inducted into Yale's prestigious Edward Bouchet Graduate Honor Society.

Dr. Boyd is a proud native of Hampton Roads and a graduate of Norfolk Public Schools, receiving the International Baccalaureate Diploma from Granby High School in 2013. In 2017, Dr. Boyd graduated Summa Cum Laude from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science as a Stamps Leadership Scholar, Mellon Mays fellow, and recipient of the Robert Brisbane Award, given to the top-ranking scholar in the Department of Political Science.

Before joining William and Mary, Dr. Boyd served as a Gaius Charles Bolin fellow in the Department of Political Science at Williams College.