D. A. Wallach

Class of 2007
Concentrator: African and African American Studies
Email: dwallach@fas.harvard.edu

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

My best times have been in the hallway of the Department, on the second floor of the Barker center. That hallway, lined with some great artifacts of African and African American history, is the central artery of scholarship and comradery in the Department and it’s always alive with conversation and laughter.

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

I have since enjoyed other courses a great deal, but my favorite course remains my first: Professor Higginbotham's freshman seminar on the Civil Rights Movement.  For the first time, the course exposed me to Harvard's unparalleled library resources and Professor Higginbotham was, and has remained, an incredible champion of my creative and intellectual exploration.

What is the most exciting or interesting thing about African and African American Studies?

The people. When I came to Harvard from my small private high school, I worried that I would not be able to develop the close relationships with teachers and classmates that I had thrived upon back home. Harvard, after all, is an enormous, impersonal institution. But AAAS is a warm island. I have not only been able to get to know several of the faculty members as intellectuals, but as people, eager and willing to help me grow personally as much as intellectually.

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

To be honest, I had expected AAAS to be a bit watered-down, the sort of lightweight cultural studies program that conservative critics have berated for years. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have found my coursework to be both intensive and even-handed. The Department, thankfully, is an open forum to thoughts across the political and ideological landscapes, which allows for productive classrooms and provocative reading lists.

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

The single most unique thing about AAAS is that it is interdisciplinary. I am probably the most peripatetic student to have made it to Harvard. My mind wanders constantly, and I think about this book or that for a month here or there. AAAS provides incredible relief for someone like me, because it allows my studies to transcend topical and methodological constraints. As long as black people are involved, I can at turns explore economics, philosophy, history, the history of science, literature, political theory, statistics, and even the arts. Where else?

When and why did you decide to become a concentrator in African and< African American Studies/Afro-American Studies?

I saw Cornel West on C-Span's Booknotes when I was a sophomore in high-school. I had never before taken an interest in reading. I bought a volume of his work and spent two years trying to understand even the smallest sliver of its offerings, and in the course of that project I encountered Du Bois, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., William Julius Wilson, and Jamaica Kincaid. I loved what they had made, and wanted in on it. The Institute was named after Du Bois and the Department employed the three others, so it seemed to be the place for me.