Professor Harris arrived at Macalester as an instructor and a visiting assistant professor in 1994, teaching courses in women\u2019s and gender studies. In 1998 she joined the tenure-track faculty in political science and African American studies. She was tenured in 2004, earned a Juris Doctorate in 2011, and was promoted to full professor in 2013. Dr. Harris was also a founding member of the American Studies department and served as chair for eight years, including as its inaugural chair.<\/p>\n
The breadth of courses Dr. Harris has taught is wide-ranging, and includes Foundations of U.S. Politics, Policy Analysis: Health Care in the United States, Black Political Thought, Race and the Law, and \u201cThe Obama Presidency.\u201d Among the things she\u2019s most proud of during her time at Macalester are the lifelong bonds she builds with her students in the classroom.<\/p>\n
Professor Harris was a Mellon Mays Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated with a degree in American History. In 1990, she was elected Student Body President, which made her the first Black woman to serve in this role at an Ivy League institution. She earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. While in graduate school, she worked for the late U.S. Senator Paul D. Wellstone. She did a Policy Fellowship at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, and also completed Postdoctoral Fellowships at the University of Minnesota Law School and the University of Georgia.<\/p>\n
Harris has advocated on the national level at the Congressional Black Caucus., Locally, she was appointed as a Minneapolis Civil Rights Commissioner by Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, appointed to the Governor\u2019s Council on Black Minnesotans by Governor Jesse Ventura, appointed to Co-Chair the Statewide Marin Luther King Holiday (twice) by Governor Mark Dayton; and appointed to the Board of Public Defense by Governor Tim Walz.<\/p>\n
Her academic books include,\u00a0Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity<\/a>, (2009),\u00a0Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton,<\/a>\u00a0(2009),\u00a0Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Obama<\/a>, (2011),Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Trump<\/a>,\u00a0(2018)\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cBlack Girl Magic\u00a0<\/a>Beyond the Hashtag: <\/a>Twenty-First Century Acts of Self-Definition<\/a>\u201d (2019). She is also the proud curator of the\u00a0Duchess Harris Collection<\/a>, which has 120 written for 4-12 graders.<\/p>\nAWARDS AND RECOGNITION (2015 to the present)<\/h5>\n