Tyran Steward is a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Michigan and a recent recipient of the National Center for Institutional Diversity Diversity Scholar citation. He is historian of African-American and modern U.S. history, with a particular interest in American political and social history. He completed his PhD at Ohio State University under the generous support of several prestigious fellowships and grants, including the Presidential Fellowship. His first book, tentatively titled “The Benching of Willis Ward: The Making of a Black Conservative in the Jim Crow North,” is a study of black conservatism and race relations through the lens of sport.