Michael is a PhD candidate with a focus on African American women’s history. His dissertation, entitled “Rage: African American Women Engaged in Violence and Armed Self-Defense, 1900-1940,” seeks out those stories of Black women engaged in armed self-defense in order to discern its prevalence, characteristics, and relevance to Black women’s lives in early 20th century America. He received his M.A. in history from GWU. For his thesis, Michael utilized a comic book character, Misty Knight, to examine white fantasies of the Black female image, providing a multifaceted, in-depth look at the comic book industry of the 1970s. He previously served as director at two nonprofit organizations in Washington, D.C.
