The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto is honoured to welcome Dr. Tiya Miles, renowned scholar, historian, and National Book Award-winning author.

Her talk will explore interconnections between African Americans and Native Americans across time and space in the land we now call the United States. Places of focus will include the Southeast, Indian Territory, and the Great Lakes regions, particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The discussion will touch on shifts in social and political relations on the ground as well as recent developments in scholarship, representation, and community identities.

We look forward to welcoming you and your guest(s) for an engaging afternoon of critical reflection, historical insight, and shared learning. A reception to follow with refreshments.

About the Speaker

Dr. Tiya Miles is the author of eight books, including four prize-winning histories of slavery. Her 2021 National Book Award winner, All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake, was a New York Times bestseller that won eleven historical and literary prizes. Her latest work is Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People, which was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Critics Circle Award in biography. Her other books include: Wild Girls: How the Outdoors Shaped the Women Who Challenged a Nation, The Dawn of Detroit: A Chronicle of Slavery and Freedom in the City of the Straits, The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era, and the novel, The Cherokee Rose. She publishes frequently in national periodicals, and her work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation (“genius award”), the Guggenheim Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and she is currently the Michael Garvey Professor of History at Harvard University.

Hosted By

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), in collaboration with Waakebiness Institute for Indigenous Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Ontario Network Environments for Indigenous Health Research, Indigenous Literatures Lab, Indigenous Education Network (IEN),  and the Centre for Black Studies in Education (CBSE).