Meet Dr. Chinua Akimaro Thelwell, an Interdisciplinary Scholar on Race and Place
Dr. Chinua Akimaro Thelwell has always found college classrooms to be one of the “few spaces in American society where people could have honest and informed conversations around race and racism.”
When entering the higher education space as a professor, Thelwell wanted to incorporate those ideas and conversations into his teaching.
At William & Mary (W&M), some of his research focuses on Afro-diasporic history, Asian American history and the history of the idea of race.
Dr. Chinua Akimaro Thelwell
“Many Black and Asian students who I have taught have not had opportunities to study their own history,” says Thelwell, associate professor of history and Africana studies at W&M. “So, what I do is take these marginalized histories and I recirculate them in ways that are empowering to those students. But also empowering for all students.”
