Named for the first African-American doctoral recipient in the United States, the Bouchet Society recognizes outstanding scholarly achievement and promotes diversity and excellence in doctoral education and the professoriate.
The Bouchet Society is a network of preeminent scholars who exemplify academic and personal excellence, foster environments of support, and serve as examples of scholarship, leadership, character, service, and advocacy for students who have been traditionally underrepresented in the academy.
We are very pleased to announce that Michelle May-Curry was inducted this year.
Michelle May-Curry is a Ph. D. candidate in American culture. Her research focuses on visual and literary representations of mixed-race black-white families in the 20th and 21st centuries, charting how these representations change in relation to shifts in black politics and aesthetics. She has been recognized as a Rackham Merit Fellow and a Humanities Without Walls Fellow, and received the Institute for Research on Women and Gender’s Community of Scholars Research Award. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English and political science from Williams College, where she was a recipient of the Creating Connections Consortium (C3) Mellon Fellowship to conduct research at UC Berkeley. During her time at U-M, May-Curry has chaired the African American Caucus and co-chaired the Black Humanities Collective, two graduate student groups catering to the professional and scholarly interests of black studies scholars. She believes in sharing a love of visual culture and storytelling through her teaching and public scholarship. Most recently, as a Carr Center Independent Scholar, she collaborated with multimedia artist Carrie Mae Weems and other young artists and scholars to mount two art exhibitions in Detroit and in Cuba for the 2019 Havana Biennale. She has also been a volunteer with The Moth, a storytelling nonprofit organization bringing true stories to live audiences across the nation. Ultimately, she aspires to work at the intersection of arts organizations and academia, with a passion for improving lives through public scholarship and engagement.