Kelly Pollock has always been the kind of person who asks questions — lots of questions — to anyone who will listen and answer. With a BA in Religious Studies from Northwestern University and an MA in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara (where she wrote a thesis on feminist witches), she has now turned my questioning to history where she digs deep into stories that aren’t getting enough attention.
By day Kelly is the Dean of Students in the Division of the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago, where she has worked since 2004. She lives on the south side of Chicago with her husband, the two best kids in the world, and two senior cats.
Kelly joined me today to talk about “All That She Carried” by Tiya Miles, a book whose language and terminology changed my understanding of how I have always learned about enslaved persons. We also discussed why such a humble object is so profoundly affecting, and how, ultimately, this is a story of hope.
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Host: Julie Strauss
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Guest: Kelly Therese Pollock
Website/Twitter/Instagram/Unsung History Podcast/Uncorked History
Discussed in this episode:
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles
Knitting Brigades of World War 1 (Unsung History Podcast)
The Jackson State Shootings (Unsung History Podcast)
Julia Chinn, wife of Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson (Unsung History Podcast)
Dispossessed Lives: Enslaved Women, Violence and the Archive by Marisa J. Fuentes (this contains Fuentes’ method of “reading against the grain”)
Wake: The Hidden History of Women Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall
When Everyone Around You Is Talking About the End, Talk About Black History (Tiya Miles Op-Ed in the New York Times – may have a paywall, but I promise, this is WELL worth a read.)
A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder (Book 1 of the Countess of Harleigh Mystery Series) by Dianne Freeman
Fierce and Fearless: Patsy Takemoto Mink, First Woman of Color in Congress by Judy Tzu-Chun Wu and Gwendolyn Mink
Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women’s Suffrage Movement by Wendy L. Rouse
Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement by Cathleen D. Cahill
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Thanks for listening, Bookworms! . I’m your host, Julie Strauss, and you can find me on Instagram. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram, where you can see some of my favorite quotes from the podcast, occasional photos of my reading cave, and get bookish news from friends of the show. You might even catch a glimpse of our official mascot, Benny, the meanest bunny on the planet. I really love most social media, but I love the Instagram book community. So come on over and let’s chat books.
