Duchess Harris

Current

Author at Palgrave Macmillan
Associate Professor at Macalester College

Education

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
University of Pennsylvania

Connections

106 connections

Industry

Higher Education

Websites

Duchess Harris’s Summary

I am an Associate Professor of American Studies at Macalester College, author of the forthcoming "Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton," and co-editor with Bruce D. Baum of the forthcoming "Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity." I am also a J.D. candidate at the William Mitchell College of Law.

Duchess Harris’s Specialties:

U.S. Politics, African American Political Movements, Black Feminist Theory.

Duchess Harris’s Experience

Author

Palgrave Macmillan

(Privately Held; Publishing industry)

June 2009 — Present (6 months)

Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book analyzes Black women's involvement in American political life, focusing on what they did to gain political power between 1961 and 2001, and why, in many cases, they did not succeed. Harris demonstrates that Black women have tried to gain centrality through their participation in Presidential Commissions, Black feminist organizations, theatrical productions, film adaptations of literature, beauty pageants, electoral politics, and Presidential appointments.

Harris contends that 'success' in this area means that the feminist-identified Black women in the Congressional Black Caucus who voted against Clarence Thomas's appointment would have spoken on behalf of Anita Hill; Senator Carol Moseley Braun would have won re-election; Lani Gunier would have had a hearing; Dr. Joycelyn Elders would have maintained her post; and Congresswoman Barbara Lee wouldn't have stood alone in her opposition to the Iraq war resolution. (Palgrave Macmillan - July 2009)
Associate Professor

Macalester College

(Educational Institution; Higher Education industry)

September 1998 — Present (11 years 3 months)

My research interests include U.S. politics, African American political movements and the emergence of Black feminist theory and organization in the 1960s and 1970s, emphasizing sexuality and soci-economic status as points of conflict and coherence.

Another area of interest for me is race and gender issues as well as class issues within the African American community. I have been teaching at Macalester College since 1998 and teach courses on race, ethnicity and politics; African American political thought; and black public intellectuals.

Duchess Harris’s Education

University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

Ph.D. , American Studies & Graduate Minor in Feminist Studies , 1993 — 1997

Research Fellow & Co-Director of Programs, Institute on Race and Poverty, University of Minnesota Law School. Responsibilities included producing original scholarship in the area of race and poverty; supervising academic and applied research projects and consultation; coordinating staff projects and assignments; and overseeing all Institute programs and events. 1996-97

Activities and Societies:

Lund University, Lund, Sweden. Attended the History Department. Studies included a comparative analysis of labor migration of Blacks from the Southern, United States, and Chicanos from Mexico, and Swedes, to Minnesota.

Yale University, New Haven. CT. Attended The Women’s Campaign School. Inc. affiliated with the Women’s Studies Program.
University of Pennsylvania

B.A. , American History and Afro-American Studies:Minor in English , 1987 — 1991

Activities and Societies:

University of Oxford, Oxford England. Attended Oxford Centre for African Studies under the auspices of St. Hugh’s College. Studies included two literature courses: Women’s Literatures of Africa and the African Diaspora, and Resistance in South African Literature. June - Aug. 1990

University of Ibadan, lbadan, Nigeria. Attended Institute for African Studies. Studies included African Folklore and African Political Science July - Aug. 1989