Dr. Amanda T. Boston is an assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on twentieth-century and contemporary African American history, politics, and popular culture. Her current projects explore the post-1970 gentrification of Brooklyn, New York and the relationship between the history of race and structural racism in Brooklyn, the rise of colorblindness and neoliberalism, and the making and unmaking of the borough’s Black communities. Prior to joining the Pitt faculty, she was a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University.

Boston has received research funding and support from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Institute for Citizens & Scholars (formerly the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), among other sources. She holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Africana Studies from Brown University, as well as an M.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Political Science and African & African American Studies from Duke University. 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Boston attended local public schools before graduating from Poly Prep Country Day School. She is a proud trustee emerita of the Prep for Prep program, and past president of the organization’s alumni council. She is also a member of the board of directors of the Municipal Art Society of New York and a trustee emerita of Brown University. In addition to scholarship and teaching, Boston is passionate about social justice, travel, music, Duke basketball, and Black sitcoms from the 1990s.