Imani Perry

I am a Professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. I received my B.A. from Yale in 1994. At age 27, I received my Ph.D. from Harvard University in the Program in the History of American Civilization, and my J.D. from Harvard Law School. After completing a Future Law Professor's Fellowship at Georgetown University Law Center, I joined the faculty of Rutgers School of Law-Camden. At Rutgers, I was awarded the New Professor of the Year award in my first year. At the end of my 5th year I was promoted to full professor and awarded the Board of Trustees Fellowship for Scholarly Excellence. I joined the Princeton faculty in 2009, after having served as the inaugural Distinguished visiting fellow in 2007-2008. I am the author of two books: More Beautiful and More Terrible: The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the United States (New York University Press, 2011) and Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop (Duke University Press, 2004). I also wrote the notes and introduction to the Barnes and Nobles Classics Edition of the Narrative of Sojourner Truth.