Education

M.A. University of Virginia (2024)
M.A. Boston University (2016)
B.A. University of Central Arkansas (2014)

Biography

Bethany Bell is a second-year PhD Student in the history department at the University of Virginia. Bell is a student of African American history and her research explores the intersection of the history of slavery and the Civil War and public memory in the late 19th and early 20th century. Bethany is currently working on her Master's Thesis titled "Dismantling The Master's House: How Freedom Seekers Reshaped the Built Environment During the U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865". This research explores how unfree and free Black southerners used the Civil War as a catalyst to renegotiate their relationships to the built environment of the plantation. 

Bethany also works as a researcher on behalf of the Memory Project at UVA, uncovering the history of the Charlottesville slave trade.

Bell holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Central Arkansas and Boston University respectively.

Research

Master's Thesis:  "Dismantling The Master's House: How Freedom Seekers Reshaped the Built Environment During the U.S. Civil War, 1861-1865" explores how unfree and free Black southerners used the Civil War as a catalyst to unmake the landscape of slavery and form a landscape of liberation. 

Media Appearances

Andrew Ramspacher, “‘Remarkable’ UVA Students Expand Possibilities Through Washington Post Partnership,” UVA Today, March 13, 2023

Internet and Popular Press Publications

Fragments of Freedom in the Fine Print | Ancestry.com, June 11, 2024

Rhiannon Giddens's Build A House: Homeplace Making in Black Memory and Imagination, Perspectives | American Historical Association, August 24, 2023

Beyoncé's Formation: Homeplace Making in Black Memory and Imagination, Perspectives | American Historical Association, July 26, 2023

"Florida’s rejection of an AP course is the latest salvo in a very old war", The Washington Post, January 25, 2023.

"In Their Own Words: Black Pioneers from UVA's North Grounds to the Pacific Northwest", Race and Slavery at UVA's North Grounds, December 8, 2022

Awards and Honors

• Memphis State Eight Paper Prize, Third Place, University of Memphis Graduate Association of African American History | 2024
• UVA Arts Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Research Grant | 2024
• Summer Research and Conference Travel Funding | Department of History, University of Virginia | 2024
• Dana White Fellowship, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University | 2024
• UVA Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Council Research Grant | Fall 2024