About the Chair

The Maguire Chair supports exploration of the history of America with special attention to the ethical dimensions of domestic economic, political, and social policies. The appointed scholar conducts research on the ethical issues associated with leadership in the United States or on the ethical implications of significant issues, events, and movements in American history.

The research includes, but is not limited to, the conduct of politics and of government at all levels of American life and in all branches of government, and the role of ethics in shaping business, urban affairs, law, science, and medicine.

Most Recent Chair

Tamika Nunley

Tamika Nunley is Associate Professor of History and Sandler Family Faculty Fellow at Cornell University with courses and research focused on the history of slavery and African American women's and gender history. Her first book, "At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, and Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C." (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) won the Letitia Woods Brown Prize for best book in African American women’s history, the Pauli Murray Book Prize for best book in African American intellectual history, and the Mary Kelley Book prize for best book published on the history of women, gender, and sexuality in the early Republic. Her second book, "The Demands of Justice: Enslaved Women, Capital Crime, and Clemency in Early Virginia" is published with the University of North Carolina Press. This book examines clemency in legal cases that involve enslaved women accused of capital crime in early Virginia. She has published articles and reviews in The Journal of Southern History, The William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of American Legal History and the Journal of the Civil War Era.
In addition to being a lifetime member of the Association of Black Women Historians, she serves on the editorial board of Civil War History, The Journal of Southern History, and the Journal of the Civil War Era. She has served on committees for the American Historical Association, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, the Society of Civil War Historians, and the Southern Historical Association. Nunley holds a B.A. from Miami University, an M.A. from Columbia University, and another M.A. and Ph.D. from University of Virginia.

View past chairs