Tyler D. Parry

Tyler D. Parry is an assistant professor of African American and African diaspora studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, he received a B.A. in history (summa cum laude) at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He then headed toward the Atlantic and earned a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 2014. His research examines slavery in the Americas, cultures in the African diaspora, the historical memory of slavery in the United States, and the histories of resistance undertaken by oppressed populations. His first book, Jumping the Broom: The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2020. Parry’s book is the first comprehensive examination of the “broomstick wedding,” a popular marital tradition usually associated with Black Americans. He is also coeditor with Robert Greene, II, of Invisible No More: The African American Experience at the University of South Carolina, published in 2021 by the University of South Carolina Press. He also contributes to various journals, blogs, and newspapers, and his essays appear in publications like the Journal of African American History, the Journal of Southern History, Slavery and Abolition, the Washington Post, Jacobin, Black Perspectives, and the Nevada Independent, among others. He is currently working on two books, one coauthored with historian Charlton W. Yingling that examines how Europeans and Euro-Americans used canines to attack and subordinate Black people who resisted slavery and oppression, and another on the history of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department that uses untapped archival resources and newspaper reports to provide a new perspective on the troubling history of community-police relations in Sin City.

Ten Things I Can’t Do Without

1. My spouse, Shanelle, and children, Nazanin and Yara
2. Gamecock sports
3. Las Vegas Aces basketball
4. Coffee shops
5. Desert sunsets
6. Bread (all varieties)
7. Swimming in bodies of water, wherever and whenever I can
8. Independent bookstores
9. Overflowing bookshelves
10. Listening to nature