Dionti Davis graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014 with his B.A. degree in History, and a minor in African American Studies. His senior capstone "Promise vs. Practice: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Appraisal of the Tennessee Valley Authority, 1934-1938" examined the history and effectiveness of several NAACP investigations of the TVA in its early years.
He has worked for the last five years at The HistoryMakers, the nations largest African American video oral history archive in a number of positions, ranging from researcher, writer, special assistant to the executive director, to his most recent position - director of education. During his time at The HistoryMakers, Dionti presented at academic and scholarly conferences nationwide, served as associate producer of an annual live-to-tape PBS-TV interview series, wrote a number of grant proposals and reports, and recruited and managed an advisory board of faculty and administrators from over 60 colleges, universities, and public libraries.
As a child, Dionti was fascinated with mythology and the development of the world's religions. In his time at Columbia/LSE, he plans to apply that interest to investigating religious formation in the Atlantic World, particularly as a form of resistance, oppression, or as a social, political, and economic change agent. Dionti enjoys movies, music, sports, gaming, reading, and learning more about the world around him.
