Joshua Strayhorn is a scholar of the U.S. South, a public historian and a digital humanities specialist.  
 
His  book project, Freedom's Promise: Black Mobility and Migration in North Carolina, 1860 -1898, chronicles the history of enslaved and freed people’s communities and cultures in Eastern North Carolina, where its topography, ecology, and local people’s spirituality, helped shape the course of freed people’s migration to the U.S. Midwest, Deep South, and abroad during Reconstruction.

His work has been supported by numerous organizations, including the Mellon Foundation, the North Caroliniana Society, and the Kenan School of Ethics at Duke University. In 2022, he was awarded the Charlotte W. Newcombe Dissertation fellowship from the Institute For Citizens and Scholars to complete his dissertation.  He is committed expanding access to the histories of underrepresented populations across the country. He has worked with a variety of local and national partners, including the James City Historical Society, Zinn Education Project, JSTORLabs, the National Park Service, and the National Humanities Center.​