Laura Helton
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lehelton.bsky.social
Laura Helton
@lehelton.bsky.social
1.2K followers 910 following 63 posts
Historian. Archivist. Teacher of public humanities. Author of Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History (Columbia University Press, 2024).
https://cup.columbia.edu/book/scattered-and-fugi
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lehelton.bsky.social
ONE YEAR SINCE PUBLICATION of SCATTERED AND FUGITIVE THINGS! Thank you to all the readers, students, scholars, librarians, booksellers & activists who have engaged with the book -- and who carry on the work of collecting, teaching & preserving Black history today.
cup.columbia.edu/book/scatter...
Image of cover of Scattered and Fugitive Things on a black background, with quote by Elizabeth McHenry in white and yellow text: "An extraordinary book . . . Beautifully written, this is a major contribution to Black Studies" with discount code CUP20 at cup.columbia.edu Image of three rows of bookshelves in Schomburg Center bookshop, with Scattered and Fugitive Things sitting between Zeinab Badawi's An African History of Africa and Alexis Pauline Gumbs' Survival is a Promise Image of 8 people standing around a podium in front of blue and white Emory banner, with two people holding copies of Scattered and Fugitive Things. Podium has purple banner with Emory logo and white text, James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference, JWJI. Image of a laptop with two screen captures of a video conference with Mark Anthony Neal on left and Laura Helton on right, and logo of Riverside at top.
April 16, 2025 at 4:56 PM
lehelton.bsky.social
Nonstop bad news lately but taking a moment to say how honored I am to receive the @oah.org Merle Curti Intellectual History Award for Scattered and Fugitive Things + Honorable Mention for the Lawrence W. Levine Award! And for the record, this book would not have been possible without NEH funding.
Photograph of Columbia University Press banner above book display on table. Photograph of Laura Helton receiving award from David Blight
April 5, 2025 at 2:47 AM
lehelton.bsky.social
Celebrate Arturo Schomburg's birthday! On Jan 24, I'll join the team from "Remaking the World of Arturo Schomburg" to co-deliver the Arturo A. Schomburg Annual Lecture with DeLisa Minor Harris (Fisk U), Barrye Brown (Schomburg Center) & Melanie Chambliss (U of Rochester) www.nypl.org/events/progr...
"Arturo Schomburg Annual Lecture" with logo of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and photograph of Schomburg seated
January 8, 2025 at 5:18 PM
lehelton.bsky.social
Favorite co-worker Lavender!
Photo of small gray and white dog with floppy ears, in front of a bookshelf.
December 3, 2024 at 12:11 AM
lehelton.bsky.social
Next week for NYC folks: I’ll be talking about SCATTERED AND FUGITIVE THINGS: HOW BLACK COLLECTORS CREATED ARCHIVES AND REMADE HISTORY at Columbia’s Lehman Center, Tuesday 12/3 @ 5pm. They’re going to give out some books! Register here: lehmancenter.history.columbia.edu/events/laura...
Flyer: Book talk for Scattered and Fugitive Things, hosted by Lehman Center for American History, International Affairs Building, 420 W. 118 St., Room 406, Tuesday December 3, 5:00-7:30. Logo of Columbia University Press and cover image of book.
November 26, 2024 at 5:58 PM
lehelton.bsky.social
Today my book won the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference's Arline Custer Memorial Book Prize. 🙏📚 I hoped the book would speak not only to readers new to histories of Black collections, but also to archivists & curators who collect and classify everyday. So I’m incredibly honored. Thank you!
Cover of Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History, by Laura E. Helton Screenshot of award announcement at meeting of MARAC for the Arline Custer Memorial Book Award (to Laura Helton) and Article Award (to Katherine Lukaszewicz)
November 14, 2024 at 6:15 PM
lehelton.bsky.social
Read this profile and then read the book! Coming of Age in Jim Crow DC, by Paula C. Austin (NYU Press, 2019).
April 22, 2024 at 12:47 PM
lehelton.bsky.social
PUBLICATION DAY!! Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History is officially out in the world! If you don’t already have your copy, you can use discount code CUP20 @columbiaup.bsky.social  
cup.columbia.edu/book/scatter...
Blurb by Elizabeth McHenry for Scattered and Fugitive Things: “An extraordinary book . . . Beautifully written, this is a major contribution to Black Studies.”
April 16, 2024 at 10:01 PM
lehelton.bsky.social
So many years in the making . . . the page proofs are done and this book is arriving in spring 2024! Scattered and Fugitive Things: How Black Collectors Created Archives and Remade History

cup.columbia.edu/book/scatter...
Title page for Scattered and Fugitive Things
December 21, 2023 at 9:56 PM