Sally Duncan

Sally Duncan

History

Sally Duncan is originally from Michigan, growing up only 30 miles from where her ancestors settled on Potawatomi land. With an ancestral lineage that stretches back to the Mayflower, Jamestown, and William Penn, she continually grapples with the way land, history, and identity are intertwined.

Her love of history inspired a move to Virginia in 2013, and after homeschooling her 5 kids for 15 years, she returned to college, earning her B.A. in American Studies from the University of Virginia in 2020, studying race and the cultural landscape. She earned her M.A. in American Religions in 2023, where her research focused on the intersection of race, religion, and popular culture. She was both a Skinner Scholar and a member of the Raven Society.

Her first experience with civic engagement was being a board member of the Paw Paw District Library in Michigan, and currently she is a city council-appointed member of the Historic Resources Committee. She has written and presented on the history of Charlottesville neighborhood associations, and in 2019 she spent the summer doing archival research for the Preservers of the Daughters of Zion Cemetery.

Ms. Duncan lives in Earlysville and in her spare time she enjoys cooking, catching up on tv shows, and cheering on her three high schoolers from the sidelines.