Tiya Alicia Miles is an American historian. She is a Professor of History at Harvard University and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She is a public historian, academic historian, and creative writer whose work explores the intersections of African American, Native American and women’s histories.
Her research includes African American and Native American interrelated and comparative histories (especially 19th century); Black, Native, and U.S. women’s histories; and African American and Native American women’s literature. She has been a MacArthur Fellow.
A scholar and increasingly authoritative voice in reframing and reinterpreting the history of our diverse nation, Miles is the country’s foremost expert on the complex interrelationships between African and Cherokee people living and working in colonial America. In her first book “Ties That Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom,” Miles explores Cherokee history with attention to the interrelated nature of slavery, race, kin, citizenship, and community. Miles continues her exploration in to early Afro-Indian relations with a public history project and book centered on the Diamond Hill plantation in Georgia, one of the largest Native-owned plantations in colonial history.
Miles was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in 1992, from Emory University with an M.A. in 1995, and from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in 2000. She was an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley from 2000 to 2002. She was a School for Advanced Research Resident Scholar from 2007 to 2008.
Below is Tiya discussing the impact of her work: