She is currently the Henry A. Morss, Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, a Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, and a columnist for The Atlantic.

[4] Perry was born in Birmingham, Alabama, and moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her social activist parents when she was five years old.

[5] Her mother, Theresa Perry, is a professor in Africana Studies and Education at Simmons University and former dean at Wheelock College.

[11] She credits her childhood exposure to diverse cultures, regions, and religions with creating her desire to study race.

[13] In August 2014, Perry appeared on the public radio and podcast On Being, discussing race, community, and American consciousness with host Krista Tippett.

[15] In 2021, Perry was awarded a Fellowship in Intellectual and Cultural History from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

[16] On November 17, 2021, Perry's collected artwork, Welfare Queen, by Amy Sherald, sold for $3.9M in a Phillips New York auction.

[18] She also wrote the notes and introduction to the Barnes and Noble Classics Collection edition of the Narrative of Sojourner Truth.