Who We Are

Tawny Paul, Director

Tawny Paul was trained in social and economic history, and her work uses quantitative methodologies to bring under-represented voices into the historical narrative. She is interested in histories of capitalism, poverty and debt, labor, and incarceration.

As a public historian, she is interested in how we create and apply history in the present through commemorative practices. Her current research project, History in the Streets, explores histories of street names as forms of commemoration, alongside statues and other commemorative objects.

Paul believes strongly in the power of history to help us think critically about current social problems. Drawing on her expertise on the history of debt, she is interested in modern forms of debt incarceration and debates over bail reform. Her work exploring the long history of  precarity and the gig economy has been featured on BBC Radio, The Conversation, and Business Insider, amongst others. Paul has worked as a consultant interpretive planner, designing the content of museum exhibitions. She has an interest in the intersections between art and public history, a topic pursued in her book Art and Public History: Opportunities and Challenges, co-edited with Rebecca Bush.

As PHI Director, Paul manages the activities and functions of the History Department’s Public and Applied History Initiative, which promotes public history and outreach to the wider community.  She manages the National Center for History in Schools, and HistoryCorps, which places undergraduate students in internships at schools, museums and archives.