Healing Backwards: The Journey of Tracing My Roots

NC State PhD. Candidate, Tyanna West work centers around Gullah culture in the southeastern region of NC, specifically the Brunswick County area.

Tyanna Parker-West is a public historian, performance artist, and proud Gullah Geechee woman whose Brunswick County roots go back to the early 1800s. Wrapping up her final semester at North Carolina Central University in the Graduate History Department, Tyanna’s master’s thesis examines the Gullah connection in Brunswick County, North Carolina. Tyanna is also a first-year PhD student at North Carolina State University, where her focus areas include African American History and Heritage Preservation. Tyanna is the proud mother of 3 beautiful children, and married to the love of her life, David, for the past 16 years.