Faculty & Historians

Vanessa M. Holden

Dr. Vanessa M. Holden (She/Her) is an associate professor of history and serves as director of African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky (UKY). She is also the director of the Central Kentucky Slavery Initiative. Dr. Holden’s book, Surviving Southampton: African American Women and Resistance in Nat Turner’s Community (University of Illinois Press), is the winner of the 2021 James Broussard Best First Book Prize from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic (SHEAR). Her writing has been published in Slavery and Abolition: A Journal of Slave and Post-Slave Studies, Perspectives on History, Process: A Blog for American History, and The Rumpus. Dr. Dr. Holden serves as a faculty adviser on several public history and digital humanities projects including Freedom on the Move and The Digital Access Project (DAP). Follow her on X @drvholden.

Tracie Marcella Addy

Tracie Marcella Addy, PhD, MPhil is an accomplished academic leader who partners with higher education instructors across disciplines on their teaching efforts. She received her B.S. from Duke University, MPhil from Yale University, and PhD from North Carolina State University. She is a published scholar of teaching and learning and educational development, and primarily focuses on learner-centered practices. 

Dr. Addy’s work has been featured in a variety of academic journals and venues such as Inside Higher Ed and University Business. She has been an invited guest on a number of podcasts including Teaching in Higher Ed, Tea for Teaching, Teaching for Student Success, and Dead Ideas in Teaching & Learning.  

She is the lead author of the books What Inclusive Instructors Do: Principles and Practices for Excellence in College Teaching (2021) and Enhancing Inclusive Instruction: Student Perspectives and Practical Approaches for Advancing Equity in Higher Education (2024). She is a frequently invited keynote speaker and workshop facilitator. Follow her work on tracieaddy.com, X (@TracieAddy), and LinkedIn.