
María Esther Hammack
Assistant Professor of African American History
She, Her, Hers
Dulles Hall
230 Annie & John Glenn Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Areas of Expertise
- African Diaspora, Black Liberation, Early America, Mexican Freedom, Early American Abolition, Slavery and Freedom in North America, American Slavery
- Underground Railroad, Atlantic World, AfroMexico, Black Atlantic
Education
- McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021-23)
- University of Texas at Austin, Ph. D. (2021)
- East Carolina University, M. A. (2015)
- East Carolina University, B. A. (2012)
Dr. María Esther Hammack is a Mexican scholar and public historian whose work bridges the histories of liberation and abolition that shaped the US, Mexico, and Canada. Her first book, Channels of Liberation: Freedom Fighters in the Age of Abolition reexamines the Underground Railroad to reconsider & broaden the actors, timelines, and geographies of Black Liberation in North America through the experiences of Black Americans, principally women, who left the United States to claim freedom in Mexican spaces.
Dr. Hammack is currently Co-PI of a Humanities in Place grant from the Mellon Foundation in collaboration with the Webber Family Preservation Project in Texas and serves various national and international orgranizations in various positions. This year, 2024-2025, she received the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring from the College of Arts and Sciences here at The Ohio State University.
Courses Taught
Autumn 2023
HIST/AFAM 3086: Black Women in Slavery & Freedom
Spring 2024
HIST/AFM 2800: Introduction to the History Discipline
HIST/AFAM 3081: Free Black People in Antebellum America
Fall 2024
HIST/AFAM 2080: African American History to 1877
Spring 2025
HIST/AFM 3086: Black Women in Slavery & Freedom
HIST 4085: Meanings of Freedom ( Undergraduate Seminar)
Fall 2025
HIST 7900: Colloquium in Historiography and Critical Theory
HIST/AFM 3086: Black Women in Slavery and Freedom
Spring 2026
HIST 3025: American Revolutions
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October 1st, 2024
Forging Freedom: AfroLatin American Independence Movements
