Dr. Mary Frances Phillips is an Associate Professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is a historian and public intellectual. Dr. Phillips’s book, Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins (2025, NYU Press’ Black Power Series), is both a critical study and biography of Black Panther Party veteran Ericka Huggins, one of the longest-serving women members of the organization. Her book historicizes women’s prison organizing, resistance, and collision with law enforcement of women political prisoners. She has published journal articles in SOULS: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society; Women’s Studies Quarterly; Western Journal of Black Studies; Spectrum: A Journal on Black Men; and Syllabus Journal. 

Outside the academy, her essays have been featured in The Huffington Post, New Black Man (in Exile), Colorlines, Vibe Magazine, The Fulcrum, Black Youth Project, Word In Black, and the African American Intellectual History Society’s blog, Black Perspectives. Her work has garnered media attention in TIME Magazine; Ms. Magazine; OUT FM; Detroit Free Press; the Illinois News Bureau; the New York Historical Women at the Center blog series; BronxNet Cable Television; Michigan National Public Radio’s Stateside; WBAI Pacifica Radio, New York City; Connecticut Public Radio; Black Agenda Radio (the broadcast of Black Agenda Report); and a host of podcasts including Therapy for Black Girls, The Black Studies Podcast, and Drafting the Past: The Art and Craft of Writing History.

Ph.D., African American and African Studies, Michigan State University

M.A., African American and African Studies, The Ohio State University

B.S., Health Studies, Michigan State University

• Race, Women, and Gender in Social Movements (Post-1945)
• The Modern Black Freedom Struggle
• Black Power Studies
• Black Feminism
• Black Panther Party
• The Carceral State
• Wellness Studies

Dr. Phillips’s book, Black Panther Woman: The Political and Spiritual Life of Ericka Huggins, was named a finalist for the 2026 book prize awarded by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. She was also selected as a 2025–2026 University of Illinois System OpEd Project Public Voices Fellow. Her research has been supported by the Black, Race, and Ethnic Studies Initiative Grant within the City University of New York, the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Notre Dame, the American Association of University Women American Postdoctoral Research Leave Fellowship, the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics at the City University of New York Graduate Center, and the Faculty Fellowship Publication Program with the City University of New York.