Tiya Miles

Tiya Alicia Miles is an American historian. She is Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is a public historian, academic historian, and creative writer whose work explores the intersections of African American, Native American and women's histories. Her research includes African American and Native American interrelated and comparative histories (especially 19th century); Black, Native, and U.S. women's histories; and African American and Native American women's literature. She was a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.

Life Miles was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in 1992, from Emory University with an M.A. in 1995, and from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in 2000. She was an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley from 2000 to 2002, and taught at the University of Michigan from 2002 to 2018. She was a School for Advanced Research Resident Scholar from 2007 to 2008.

Her 2021 book All That She Carried, which depicted the lives of American slaves in the south, specifically Rose and her daughter Ashley (Ashley's sack) was awarded the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Awards 2007: Hiett Prize 2011: MacArthur Fellowship 2021: National Book Award for Nonfiction for All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley's Sack, a Black Family Keepsake 2022: Ralph Waldo Emerson Award 2022: Cundill History Prize for All That She Carried 2022: joint winner, Frederick Douglass Book Prize for All That She Carried 2024: shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction for All That She Carried

Works