Frankie Weaver is the Educational Outreach Programs Manager at the Institute of American Civics (IAC) housed at the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs. She is also the TN Civics Academy Program Director for the IAC. The Academy is a premier annual collaborative conference for K – 12 government, history, and social science teachers.

Weaver taught history, research methods, and writing courses at the University at Buffalo (SUNY UB), SUNY Brockport, D’Youville College, and for Maryville College. She often liked to bring her research into the classroom, sharing primary resources and interviews with students, helping to bring a more nuanced understanding of international activist networks related to 20^th-century international anti-apartheid activism and American Civil Rights Movements. She also has experience in Oral and Public History as she has managed recent oral history projects connected to career-connected learning, community engagement, and workforce development, as well as collections management projects for the Oneida Community Mansion House, National Historic Landmark, where she previously served as the Curator of Collections. 

Weaver’s research focuses on how anti-apartheid art, both its production and the artwork itself, fostered solidarity between transnational activist communities. Her dissertation, “Art Against Apartheid: American and South African Cultural Activism and Networks of Solidarity,” investigates and analyzes American anti-apartheid activism from the late 1940s through the 1960s by tracing transnational solidarity networks. The dissertation emphasizes the significance of artistic production, showing how collaboration between artists and activists fostered communities that contributed to anti-apartheid sentiment and activism in the U.S. and internationally. Weaver has published an article with Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies entitled “Anti-Apartheid Solidarity Networks and the Production of Come Back, Africa” (2015).

Weaver joins the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, having previously earned dual B.A. degrees in Theater and History, a M.A. degree in History, and a doctoral degree in History from the State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). Weaver is also a graduate from the University at Buffalo’s “Advanced Honors Program.” More recently, Weaver completed a post-doctorate associate degree from the University of Maryland Global Campus focused on computer science and digital humanities, and she is interested in topics related to innovative educational models promoting digital literacy and accessibility for previously underserved rural and urban learners.