THE ALBERT R. LEPAGE ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIP IN HISTORY
Anna Duensing, PhD
Anna Duensing, PhD, is a historian focused on African American history in the US and the world, specifically studying Black internationalism, transnational social movements, and the evolving global politics of white supremacy across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. She teaches courses on African American and African diaspora history, race, citizenship, and national identity; the history of social movements; left and right wing political mobilizations in US history; histories of US militarism, empire, and war-making; and public humanities. Dr. Duensing received a PhD with distinction in History and African American Studies with an MA Certificate in Public Humanities from Yale University in 2022.
She is currently researching and writing her first book, tentatively titled “Fascism Is Already Here: Antifascism and the Black Freedom Struggle.” The book traces the varieties, characteristics, and manifold functions of antifascist thought and praxis within the Black freedom struggle in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Dr. Duensing’s work is grounded in a commitment to reaching beyond traditional academic audiences. Over the last decade, she has worked for a number of museums, artists and other public institutions—including in the Oral History Department of the National September 11 Museum; for artist Tino Sehgal at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; in education and public programs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; for artist and filmmaker Hito Steyerl in an installation at the Park Avenue Armory; in curriculum development with the Henry Street Settlement House and the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies; at the German-American Institute in Heidelberg; and in education, research, and oral history the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. She also serves as a co-organizer and Board Member with the April Institute, a nonprofit and education collective dedicated to interdisciplinary research and teaching about fascism and antifascism in the United States.
About the Albert R. Lepage Endowed Professorship in History
Albert Lepage is the retired co-chairman of Lepage Bakeries, Inc., a 113-year-old maker of breads, rolls, English muffins and donuts. Lepage joined the family business in 1971 and served as co-owner from 1978 and chairman from 1983 to 2012, when the company merged with Flowers Foods. He also served as chairman of the Quality Bakers of America Co-operative and treasurer of the American Bakers Association.
Throughout his career and continuing in his retirement, Lepage has been an active volunteer and philanthropist, serving on the boards of St. Mary’s Health System, Hebron Academy in Hebron, Maine, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Lewiston-Auburn Arts, the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Governor’s Business Council.
Lepage graduated from Villanova University’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1969.