Cristi Whiskey
Biography
Cristi Whiskey is a Ph.D. candidate in History at UCLA; her research focuses on anti-Blackness, Islam, and Enslavement in medieval West Africa.
Advanced to Candidacy
Awards & Grants
2025 CMRS-CEGS Conference Travel Grant
2024 RaceB4Race Social Media Fellows Program
2020 & 2024 Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship, UCLA Graduate Division
2021 & 2022 Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Summer Fellowship, UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies
2021 Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, UCLA Graduate Division *declined
2020 UCLA Competitive Edge: Summer Transition Program to the Doctorate, UCLA Graduate Division
2020 Arizona Center for Medieval Studies and Renaissance Studies: Race Before Race Travel Award
2018 Marshall Van Deusen Award, Department of English, University of California, Riverside
Conference Presentations
- “Archival Silences: Black Concubines in the medieval Sahara c.1200-1400.” 60th International Congress on Medieval Studies. Kalamazoo, MI. 2025.
- “Before Lives of Enslavement: the Black Diaspora into the Trans-Saharan World.” The Biennial Congress of the New Chaucer Society. Pasadena, CA. 2024.
- “Questionable Bills of Sale: Legal Opinions & Race-Making in the Trans-Saharan Slave Trade.” Region and Enmity: A Raceb4race Symposium. 2021 *hosted via Zoom.
- “Early Modern Shakespearian Globe: Othello’s Black Death.” Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACRMS) Unfreedom Conference. Tempe, AZ. 2019.
- “Legitimizing Race Studies in the Curriculum…” Medieval Academy of America: The Global Turn in Medieval Studies. Philadelphia, PA. 2019.
- “Racial Categorization in Marco Polo’s Description of the World.” Celebrating Belle da Costa Greene: An Examination of Medievalists of Color. Saint Louis, MI. 2018.
