I’m Emily Bradley Greenfield, a historian of American slavery and memory whose work bridges the gap between academic research and public understanding. I am perennially fascinated by the ways we reconstruct the past — the remembering and forgetting that unfolds across the built memorial landscape, in textbooks and museum halls, and on tour at historic sites. I received my PhD in history from Stanford University and am presently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia’s Jefferson Scholars Foundation.
My current book project investigates the long public history of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello plantation, that quintessentially idiosyncratic American memorial. My research has been generously supported by the Mellon Foundation, the Stanford Humanities Center, and the International Center for Jefferson Studies.
In addition to my scholarship, I have more than a decade of experience telling stories in the public sphere. As a producer for CBS News’ Face the Nation, I earned an Emmy Award for my contributions to a broadcast commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination. I also served on the executive leadership team of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, where I helped develop the Life of Sally Hemings exhibit. I continue to advise on museum and media projects with a historical bent.