About Joshua L. Crutchfield

Joshua L. Crutchfield is a historian of twentieth-century Black freedom movements, Black intellectual history, and the carceral state. He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Black Studies at Northwestern University, where he is completing his first book, Black Women’s Abolitionist Thought: Imprisoned Black Women Intellectuals and the Formation of a Tradition. The project traces how Black women political prisoners developed foundational abolitionist theory during and after the Black Power era, shaping the intellectual roots of today’s movements against policing and incarceration.

Crutchfield’s writing has appeared in The Black Scholar, The Journal of African American History, Ethnic and Third World Review of Books, The Carryall, The Austin Chronicle, and Black Perspectives, the award-winning blog of the African American Intellectual History Society.

An early contributor to the digital Black humanities, Crutchfield co-founded #BlkTwitterstorians with Aleia Brown in 2015—a social media initiative created to connect and amplify Black historians online. His public and digital scholarship reflect a commitment to making Black intellectual and political histories accessible and engaged.

Crutchfield’s activism is deeply tied to his research. In 2015, he co-founded Black Lives Matter Nashville, a grassroots organization committed to ending state violence against Black communities in Middle Tennessee.

He has received fellowships and awards from institutions including the Harry Ransom Center, the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics, and the Graduate Association for African American History. In 2024, he was named a Dean’s Distinguished Graduate by the University of Texas at Austin.

He lives in Chicago with his wife, Tiffany, and their dog, Maudie, where he continues his research, teaching, and community-based work.