Miles, Tiya 1970–

(Tiya A. Miles, Tiya Alicia Miles)

PERSONAL:

First name is pronounced "tie-ah"; born January 17, 1970, in Cincinnati, OH; daughter of Benny and Patricia (present surname, King) Miles; married Joseph Gone; children: twins. Ethnicity: "African American." Education: Harvard University, A.B., 1992; Emory University, M.A., 1995; University of Minnesota, Ph.D., 2000.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, 4700 Haven Hall 1045, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. E-mail—tiya@umich.edu.

CAREER:

Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, coordinator of Shabazz African American Center, 1998-2000; University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor of ethnic studies, 2000-02; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, assistant professor of American culture, Afroamerican and African studies, and Native American studies, 2002—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Ford Foundation dissertation fellow, 1998-99, and postdoctoral fellow, 2001-02; Thurgood Marshall dissertation fellow, Dartmouth College, 1999-2000; Frederick Jackson Turner Award, Organization of American Historians, and Lora Romero Distinguished First Book Award, American Studies Association, both 2006, and Hiett Prize in the Humanities, Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 2007, all for Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom; named a Top Young Historian, History News Network, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2005.

(Editor, with Sharon P. Holland) Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country, Duke University Press (Durham, NC), 2006.

Contributor to books, including (with Keiko Morris) Testimony: Young African Americans on Self-Discovery and Black Identity, edited by Natasha Tarpley, 1995; Listen Up: Voices of the Next Feminist Generation, edited by Barbara Findlen, 1995; Confounding the Color Line: Indian-Black Relations in Multidisciplinary Perspective, edited by James Brooks, 2002; (with Celia E. Naylor) Handbook of North American Indians, edited by Raymond Fogelson, 2004; (with Barbara Krauthamer) A Companion to African-American History, edited by Alton Hornsby, Jr., 2005; Race, Roots, and Relations: Native and African Americans, edited by Terry Straus, 2005; and Haunted by Empire: Race and Colonial Intimacies in North American History, edited by Ann Laura Stoler, 2006. Also contributor to periodicals, including Ethnohistory, Journal of Interdenominational Theological Center, Journal of Social History, Ms., Sistersong: Women across Cultures, and Women and Language.

SIDELIGHTS:

Tiya Miles's first book, Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, focuses on the often-overlooked connections among the lives and concerns of whites, Cherokees, and African Americans. The study centers on a single family consisting of Tarsekayahke (also known as Shoe Boots), a prominent Cherokee man, his African American slave and wife, Doll, and their children. Describing it on H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online as "a wide-ranging and ambitious book," Joshua Piker stated that it "offers a challenging narrative, one that succeeds in speaking to issues fundamental to Native and American history without losing track of its obligations to the individuals and families at its center." Through the lives of the Shoeboots family Miles explores the meaning of race and slavery among the Cherokee and in the United States and delves into issues of identity, citizenship, motherhood, and property, among others. It is an "impressive" study, in the opinion of Journal of Southern History contributor Ryan Dearinger, who numbered it among recent books that "revise and reorient the direction of existing literature" with "refreshing evidence and persuasive arguments that, while geared toward specialists, prove readable for the general public." The book won the Frederick Jackson Turner Award from the Organization of American Historians, the Lora Romero Distinguished First Book Award from the American Studies Association, and the Hiett Prize in the Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture.

Miles told CA: "I have been interested in writing since I was a girl in elementary school, influenced by both my grandmother's vivid stories of life in rural Mississippi and by wonderfully creative elementary and middle school teachers who allowed me to write poetry, plays, and even a mock newspaper set in ancient Rome to fulfill my assignments. During junior high school summers, I copy-clerked and then wrote community interest stories for my local newspaper, the Cincinnati Enquirer. I was a college student before I learned that academia was an actual profession. I was a graduate student when I realized that becoming a professor would allow for, and even require, a commitment to writing.

"I have been most meaningfully inspired by fiction, essays, and literary theory produced by women writers of color, especially Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Louise Erdrich. Their remarkable vision and insights help me not only to imagine scenes from the past, but also to interpret those scenes in historical narrative."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, October, 2006, Jack D. Forbes, review of Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom, p. 1171; February, 2007, review of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds: The African Diaspora in Indian Country, p. 320.

American Indian Culture and Research Journal, summer, 2005, Christina Snyder, review of Ties That Bind, pp. 171-173; fall, 2007, Patricia Penn Hilden, review of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds, p. 153.

American Quarterly, December, 2006, David Chang, "Claiming Kin," p. 1191.

American Studies, spring, 2006, Carmaletta M. Williams, review of Ties That Bind, p. 168.

Choice, November, 2005, D. Butts, review of Ties That Bind, p. 558; August, 2007, G. Gagnon, review of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds, p. 2161.

Journal of American Ethnic History, fall, 2007, Joanna Brooks, review of Crossing Waters, Crossing Worlds, p. 99.

Journal of Social History, winter, 2007, Ryan Dearinger, review of Ties That Bind, p. 474.

Journal of Southern History, May, 2006, Fay Yarbrough, review of Ties That Bind, p. 465.

Western Historical Quarterly, winter, 2006, Donna L. Akers, review of Ties That Bind, p. 527.

ONLINE

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online,http://www.h-net.org/ (July, 2006), Joshua Piker, "Race, Slavery, and a Cherokee Family."

University of Michigan Web site,http://www.umich.edu/ (September 22, 2008), faculty profile.