My name is Kyshia (Ki-shay-uh) Henderson. I’m a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow on the tenure track at the University of Chicago.
I am a social psychologist and I take an interdisciplinary approach to examining how White Americans justify and promote racism. Specifically, I examine how White Americans ignore, dismiss, deny, and distort historical truths in ways that promote white supremacy.
In one line of work, I consider when White Americans’ ignore historical truths, some of this work has already been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Henderson et al., 2021).
In a second line of work, I consider how White Americans sometimes distort historical time and truths to excuse racism.
In another line of work, through the lens of Critical Race Theory, I consider how White Americans–in particular, White conservatives– use and misuse historical truths to ignore and dismiss systemic racism.
With my work, I hope to contribute to the reimagining of how we think about, teach, and use history to promote racial progress.
Let’s work together!
Prospective Students
I am considering PhD student applications for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Potential Collaborators
If you are not a prospective student and would like to collaborate, please reach out! I’d love to chat!