Brandon Terry

Class of 2005
Co-Concentrator: Government and African and African American Studies
Email: bterry@post.harvard.edu

What is your favorite memory of your experience in the Department of African and African American Studies (AAAS)?

I’ve had a ton of great memories in my time in the Department, so it’s hard to pick just one. Probably the most fulfilling times I’ve had come from spending time with the professors—thesis advising sessions with Tommie Shelby that inevitably drifted into conversations on Hiphop and popular culture and Kim DaCosta giving me advice on graduate school, sociology, and dating.  And of course, anytime Professor Gates is around, something hilarious is bound to happen. It really is a group of faculty that I could not imagine being matched by any other department as far as a mix of experiences, ideas, and genuine care for students’ all-around well-being. AAAS professors take the time to know their students beyond classroom conversation.

What was your favorite course that you took in the AAAS Department?

My favorite class was the AAAS97b tutorial taught by Kim DaCosta. I was more than a little hesitant to take the class, because I didn’t quite understand what the syllabus meant by studying the “changing concepts of blackness” and I tend to bristle at most required courses anyway. Within a week of the class, however, I was completely turned around. I think this course, more so than any other at Harvard, can change the way people think about race for the better and help students develop the concepts and ideas that we will need to move forward as a society. I liken the feeling I had after taking the course to that of a runner who has just taken her ankle weights off. I have taken other courses where I learned a lot, but this was, without a doubt, the most fulfilling for me. Of course, it goes without saying that Kim DaCosta is a brilliant woman and great teacher whom I hold in the highest possible regard as an educator and mentor.

Was there anything that surprised you about your experience in the Department? 

When I came to college, I could have never imagined myself as an AAAS concentrator. I figured that I had seventeen years of practice being black, so why did I need to pay somebody to teach me about it now? Thankfully, through my interactions with the faculty, I realized that my idea about the Department as a facility for cultural tourism was misguided to say the least. AAAS is amazing because it provides you with not only new subjects and material to study, but also with new theoretical approaches. Race is one of those things where people think they know everything about it, but really don’t. AAAS forces you to develop ideas beyond a rudimentary understanding of race and racial oppression that transcend popular discourse in this country.

Is there anything about African and African American Studies that you think is unique?

I think the faculty is exceptionally well-intentioned when it comes to students. I think that its interdisciplinary approach sets it apart from other departments.  It also takes a very internationalist/diasporic approach and avoids drawing unnecessary divisions between global communities that hinder accurate scholarship and thought.

What do you plan to do after graduation?

I just graduated in June, and I am studying for a master’s in political theory at Corpus Christi College at the University of Oxford on a Michael von Clemm Fellowship. After completing the program, I will return to the U.S. to enroll in a Ph.D. program in Political Science and African American Studies. The Department has influenced my plans tremendously, because it is the interaction with these faculty members that encouraged me to pursue a career in academia and continue to contribute to the development of AAAS—perhaps even one day as a Harvard professor.