Erica Sterling

Education 

Ph.D., Harvard University 
M.A., Harvard University 
B.A., Emory University 

Biography

Erica Sterling is an Assistant Professor in the Corcoran Department of History at the University of Virginia. Her research explores the intersection of African American education, philanthropy, and local and federal policy in the latter half of the twentieth century. Her forthcoming book project aims to historicize the contemporary education reform movement, examining how k-12 reformers' reliance on innovation perpetuated inequity. 

Her work has been published in the Journal of African American History and Black Perspectives, and she is the curator for a new exhibit on the history of African American schooling in Washington, D.C. titled Class Action: Education and Opportunity in the Nation’s Capital at the DC History Center.

Sterling’s research has been supported by multiple entities, including the Center for American Political Studies and the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History at Harvard, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library, and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, which recently awarded her a postdoctoral fellowship for calendar year 2025.

Before joining the faculty at UVA, Sterling spent two years as a Rising Scholars Postdoctoral Fellow in the history department. Sterling earned her BA in history and psychology from Emory University, and her MA and PhD in history from Harvard University.