Detrice L. Roberts

Detrice L. Roberts is a historian, educator, and scholar whose work explores the intersections of history, higher education, and cultural identity. She currently serves as a professor of history at Jackson State University, where she teaches courses in U.S. History, World Civilization, and African American experiences, and as an adjunct faculty member at Tougaloo College. In both classrooms, Roberts emphasizes the importance of connecting historical study to the lived realities of her students, blending traditional scholarship with digital humanities, social and emotional learning, and culturally relevant pedagogy. Roberts’s research focuses on the legacies of African American resilience and cultural memory, with particular attention to African American women’s experiences in the post-emancipation era, the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and the power of digital storytelling in preserving generational knowledge. Beyond the classroom, Roberts is the co-founder of Thee Africana Digital Humanities Lab (ADHL) at Jackson State, an initiative dedicated to digitizing archives, preserving Black history, and training students in digital scholarship. She is also engaged in numerous community-based projects, including historical preservation, midwifery heritage work, and civic engagement through nonprofit leadership. A graduate of Jackson State University with a Master of Arts in History, Roberts is pursuing an Executive Ph.D. in Urban Higher Education. Her teaching and research reflect her belief that history is not only about the past but about cultivating the tools students need to navigate identity, resilience, and liberation in the present.