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This conversation is part of the symposium Sporting Publics: History, Sports, and American Culture, which is taking place March 28–29, 2024.
Shakeia Taylor is a Chicago-based award-winning writer and storyteller, whose work focuses on the intersection of sports, history, and culture. Adrian Burgos is a Professor of History at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Taylor is currently a Deputy Senior Content Editor at the Chicago Tribune, host of the Society for American Baseball Research’s (SABR) monthly interview series “Ballpark Figures,” and a member of the Negro Leagues and Teams Committee, a special committee convened to study other leagues and teams from Black baseball history. An advocate for diversity in journalism, she is also an active member of the Association for Women in Sports Media, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Society for American Baseball Research.
Before joining the Chicago Tribune in 2022, Taylor was a freelance sports and culture writer, earning features in Baseball Prospectus, SB Nation, Fangraphs, Victory Journal, MLB.com, and several other publications. She has appeared on podcasts and radio shows in the U.S. and Canada, and she can be seen in ESPN’s “The Captain” and Negro League documentary “The League.”
In 2021, Shakeia received an Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) award for her Privilege of Play series on Yahoo! Sports, and won the 2021 SABR Analytics Conference Research Award for historical baseball analysis/commentary, becoming the first Black woman to ever receive the prestigious honor.
As one of the best baseball writers today, Taylor has helped shine a light on race and culture in baseball.