New faculty member, Karma Frierson, shares her research interests, COVID-19 challenges, and hopes for the spring semester.
When I decided to delay my transition to Washington University by one year, I could not have imagined a global pandemic, Zoom semesters, and price gouging on web cameras. There is nothing unprecedented in calling this an unusual year. We have all endured hardships both big and small, yet I must say my colleagues and students have been a highlight of my year. This semester, I had the privilege of teaching great students in my classes—Blackness and the Politics of Recognition and Introduction to Africana Studies, which I co-taught with Professor Shearer. In both classes I saw minds at work, grappling with new material, building upon and challenging it—all of this without the elegized “Fall Break” students reminisced about in the Zoom chat. Next semester I look forward to meeting new students in my two seminars—"Maroons and Marronage,” which is about self-liberation practices during times of enslavement, and “Zambaje: Afro-Indigenous Relations,” which explores the relationship between and overlap of indigeneity and Blackness in Latin America. Hopefully it will be the last semester on Zoom—I can’t wait to get to know the students, faculty, and city in person!
