Keisha N. Blain is a historian of the 20th century United States with broad interests and specializations in African American History, the modern African Diaspora, and Women’s and Gender Studies.  Her writing grapples with a range of topics, including 20th century Black internationalism, Black nationalist politics, and Black women’s intellectual history.

Blain’s research uncovers the histories of Black women on the margins of society who advocated revolutionary social changes to secure a more just and equal world. Her research sheds new light on how Black women, especially members of the working poor and individuals with limited formal education, have functioned as key leaders, theorists, and strategists—at the local, national, and international level.

Blain is the author of the multiple prize-winning book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (2018) and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America (2021). Blain’s latest book, A Global Struggle: How Black Women Led the Fight for Human Rights, will be published by W.W. Norton in 2025. This upcoming book offers a new history of human rights framed by the work and ideas of Black women in the United States from the 19th century to the present.

In her work, Blain draws on diverse fields of study and analyzes a range of primary sources (including unconventional ones) to capture the richness and complexity of Black women’s ideas and global activism throughout the 20th century. By emphasizing the lived experiences and historical contributions of marginalized groups, Blain’s research and writing challenges many of the myths, misrepresentations, and omissions in dominant historical narratives.

Blain received a Ph.D. in History from Princeton University.