At Yale, she was one of the last doctoral students of C. Vann Woodward, one of the preeminent American historians of the twentieth century.

She appears in Ken Burns' documentary series, The Civil War and The Congress.

[4][5] Dr. Fields has been critical of the New York Times 1619 Project for ignoring white indentured servants that could be bought and sold in Virginia in 1607 and failure to understand the economics behind slavery.

[6] Fields was the first African American woman to earn tenure at Columbia University.

"[7] She authored the 2012 book Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life (along with her sister Karen Fields, a sociologist).