MIRIAM (Duchess) HARRIS
by DALE RICARDO SHIELDS
“I wouldn’t trade nothing for my journey now.“
Dr. Harris is an Associate Professor of American Studies at Macalester College. She joined the faculty in 1998 and has expertise in 20th-century political history, feminist theory, and race and the law.
“Special Assistant to the Provost for Strategic Initiatives at Macalester College. She is an African-American academic, author, and legal scholar. She is a professor of American Studies at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, specializing in feminism, United States law, and African American political movements. She also teaches a course on Black Health at the University of Minnesota Law School.
Harris was born in Virginia, the daughter of Miriam Mann Harris and Frank Harris, Jr. Her maternal grandmother, Miriam Daniel Mann, was a mathematician at NASA. When she was 14, Harris received an academic scholarship to attend Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. Harris completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Mellon Mays Fellow. During her time in college, Harris was elected student body president. She was the first Black woman to serve in this role at an Ivy League institution and was a key activist figure in her class. Her activism was reported in Wayne Glasker’s, Black Students in the Ivory Tower: African American Student Activism at the University of Pennsylvania, 1967-1990. In 1991, Harris earned her Bachelor of Arts in American history and Afro-American studies, and in 1997 she earned her PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was nominated for the Henry Gabriel Prize. That same year she was named one of “Thirty Young Leaders of the Future” by Ebony Magazine. In 2007 Harris began law school at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, where she earned her J.D. in 2011.
Career
Harris was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School under the direction of John A. Powell; and she was Rockefeller Humanities Resident with the Institute of African-American Studies, University of Georgia. Harris was a policy fellow for the Hubert. H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and served on the Shirley Chisholm Presidential Accountability Commission in 2010. Her writing and commentary have appeared in Litigation News, The Huffington Post, The Feminist Wire, and Race-Talk. While attending law school, Harris co-founded the William Mitchell Law Raza Journal, an online, interactive scholarly publication on the issues of race and the law. Her scholarship has been supported through a Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship. She joined the faculty at Macalester College in 1998, as a Political Science professor, and subsequently founded the American Studies department in 2003. Harris has served as a diversity consultant for dozens of national organizations. Harris lectures and speaks on the subjects of race, law, and feminism for universities, conferences, and commencements.” – Wikipedia
“The more powerful and original a mind,
the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.” – Aldous Huxley
Professor Harris was a Mellon Mays Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated in 1991 with a degree in American History. Six years later, she earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. She did postdoctoral fellowships at the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota Law School and at the Womanist Studies Consortium at the University of Georgia.
In 1998, Harris joined the faculty at Macalester College. She became the first Chair of the American Studies Department in 2003 and was granted tenure in 2004. In 2007 she decided that attending law school would allow her to expand the scope of her scholarship even further. In 2008, she was the only law student in the country chosen to be an Associate Editor for Litigation News, the American Bar Association Section’s quarterly flagship publication. In 2009, she won a $96,000 fellowship from the Bush Leadership Program, which encourages their recipients to create positive change in their communities. In 2010, she became the first Editor-in-Chief of Law Raza Journal, an interactive online race, and the law journal.
She earned a Juris Doctorate in January 2011 and has expertise in Civil Rights Law. In 2015, The Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers chose her to receive “The Profiles in Courage Award.” She is currently a member of Governor Mark Dayton’s Board of Public Defense.
She is also the proud curator of the Duchess Harris Collection, which has more than 40 books written for 3-12 graders. Macalester College President, Brian C. Rosenberg, interviewed her about a forthcoming title on the MeToo Movement.
Professor Harris is a scholar of Contemporary African American History and Political Theory. Her academic books include, Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama, (2011), and Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Trump, (2018).
Minnesota professor caught in crosshairs of proposed Texas book ban
Four books by Macalester College professor Duchess Harris made a banned book list written by a Texas Republican representative who says they could “cause distress.
Professor Harris resides in Vadnais Heights MN with her husband, Dr. Jon V. Thomas, their three children, Austin, Avi, and Zach; a British Short Haired cat named Skittles and a Standard Poodle named Mocha.
Professor Harris is a scholar of Contemporary African American History and Political Theory. Her academic books include, Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity, (2009), Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton, 2009, Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama, 2011, and Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Trump, which will be released, fall 2018.
Professor Harris was on sabbatical for the 2018-2019 academic year. She resides in Vadnais Heights MN with her husband, Dr. Jon. V. Thomas, their three children, Austin, Avi, and Zach; a British Short Haired cat named Skittles and a Standard Poodle named Mocha.
Prof. Duchess Harris on #MeToo and Tackling Sexism
How is the #MeToo movement being written about?
