Thomas C. Holt is the James Westfall Thompson Professor Emeritus of American and African American History and the College in the History Department at the University of Chicago. He holds a PhD in American Studies from Yale University (1973), an MPhil from Yale (1970), an MA from Howard University (1967), and a BA from Howard University (1965). Holt began his academic career teaching at Howard University in 1972, followed by positions at Harvard University (1976–1979), the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan (1979–1987), and the University of Chicago since 1988. He is affiliated faculty at the Center for Latin American Studies, faculty affiliate at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and faculty at the Nicholson Center for British Studies. His research specializations include United States history, African American history, Southern history, and British-Caribbean history, with a longstanding interest in comparing experiences of people in the African diaspora, particularly in the Caribbean and the United States.

Holt has garnered major awards and honors, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship (1990–1995), fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (1987–1988), Fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (1995–1996), Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale University (2014), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2003) and American Philosophical Society (2016), presidency of the American Historical Association (1994–1995), appointment to the Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities by President Clinton (1994–1997), and service on the Board of Directors of the American Council of Learned Societies (1999–2002). Key publications include Black Over White: Negro Political Leadership in South Carolina during Reconstruction (1977, Charles S. Sydnor Prize, Southern Historical Association), The Problem of Freedom: Race, Labor, and Politics in Jamaica and Britain, 1832–1938 (1992, Elsa Goveia Prize, Association of Caribbean Historians), The Problem of Race in the Twenty-first Century (Harvard, 2002), Children of Fire: A History of African Americans (Hill & Wang, 2010), and The Movement: The African American Struggle for Civil Rights (Oxford, 2021). He served on editorial boards of the Journal of Southern History (1983–1986), Slavery & Abolition (1986–1989), and American Historical Review (1990–1993), and delivered the keynote address 'Slave and Citizen: Rethinking Emancipation in the Twenty-First Century' at Queen's University, Belfast. Holt's scholarship has profoundly influenced the fields of race, labor, politics, and citizenship studies in postemancipation societies.

Professional Email: tholt@uchicago.edu