Michaela Benton

Michaela Benton will be mentored by Dr. Christopher Bonner, Associate Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College park, Douglas McElrath, Director of Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Lae'l Hughes-Watkins, Associate Director for Engagement, Inclusion and Reparative Archiving, at the University of Maryland, College Park, as part of The 1856 Project.

Michaela Benton attends Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. She is currently pursuing a major in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing, specifically poetry, and a minor in the African and African American Studies Department. Her current research interests center in African American Women from slavery to modernity with her senior thesis analyzing the connections between Black women’s experiences during slavery and their 20th century literature. Her ultimate goal is to pursue a PhD in American Studies. Michaela is a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow and in preparation for her senior thesis, has recently engaged in archival research at institutions such as Yale's Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, and Harvard's Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America.