Portia Hopkins

Portia D. Hopkins serves as the Rice University Historian. She holds a doctorate in American Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, a masters of arts and American studies from the university of Alabama and a bachelors of arts in history from Texas Christian University. As the 2020-2024 CLIR/DLF Postdoctoral Research Associate in Data Curation for African American Studies at Rice University she taught workshops and conducted outreach about data curation to African American community groups in Houston. As Rice Historian Hopkins is working to integrate diverse collections into the woods and research center and collect Rice history facts working to develop best practices documents on data curation Rice and across Houston. 

Hopkins is the recipient of the Bode-Wise American Studies Fellowship and the Wiley Dissertation Fellowship at the UMD. Before pursuing her doctorate, she earned a Bachelors in History from Texas Christian University in 2006 and a Masters in American Studies from the University of Alabama in 2008.She is interested in oral history research, grassroots social movements and the ways in which African American History is remembered in the 21st century. She has taught courses at The University of Alabama, The University of Maryland, The University for Houston- Clear Lake and with the Honors Program at Lee College.