Meet the Mellon Fellows: Dr. Francena F.L. Turner

Dr. Francena F.L. Turner

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
PhD, History of Education

Host Site: Partnership between Fort Sumter and Fort Moultrie National Historical Park, Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Reconstruction Era National Historical Park, and Reconstruction Era National Historic Network
Fellowship Title: Black Land Use and Migration in the Lowcountry, 1865-1965
Project Description: Dr. Turner will expand historical research and interpretive programming regarding Black land use and migration patterns in the Lowcountry. Using archival research and oral histories documenting the lived experiences of Black landowners and their descendants, she will explore contexts, histories, and legacies of Black land ownership in the region during the 100 years from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Era.

Bio:

Dr. Francena F.L. Turner is a native of Fayetteville, NC. She holds a doctorate in History of Education and an Ed.M. in Education Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she is a graduate of Fayetteville Technical Community College (Respiratory Care) and Fayetteville State University (History). She was the 2020-2024 CLIR/Mellon Fellow and Postdoctoral Associate for Data Curation in African American History and Culture at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH), where she served as project manager and principal interviewer for the Black Experience at the University of Maryland Oral History Project.

Turner is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in History at Fayetteville State University where she teaches African American History and Oral History. She also serves as the historian & digital archivist for the Mary Jane Legacy Project and is on the inaugural Board of Directors of the Black Oral Historians Network. Her most recent oral history-related publications can be found in Paedagogica Historica and the Oral History Review. Turner is most interested in issues of equity, agency, and thriving in education, and her research explores Black women’s P-20 education and career trajectories in higher education and Black student organizers and activists at HBCU and PWIs.

Tell us about your research interests!

My research is about the ways minoritized peoples experience accessing and moving through U.S. based higher education with a particular focus on North and South Carolina. Exploring this led me to gendered experiences in student protest in HBCUs and PWIs, nursing education, oral history theory & methodology, and social histories of defunct institutions.

How does your research connect to the mission of the National Park Service, which serves both parks and communities?

My research connects to the mission of the NPS in that much of it is based on oral histories and other first-person accounts of lived experiences under various social and institutional policies. My experience as an interdisciplinary historical researcher makes me well suited to pursue the kind of public and community-facing work required for the position.

What are you most excited about as you begin your fellowship?

I am excited to interact with communities in the South Carolina Lowcountry, and I feel honored to contribute to a fuller understanding of Black land use and loss in the region and what that means to Lowcounty communities.

Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

This project was made possible through the National Park Service by a grant from the National Park Foundation through generous support from the Mellon Foundation. The Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship program is administered through a partnership between NPS, NPF, and American Conservation Experience.