I have the honor of serving as the co-editor of Black Perspectives, the award-winning digital platform of the African American Intellectual History Society (AAIHS) along with Dr. Sasha Turner. Dr. Keisha Blain founded the site in 2017 with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi serving as associate editor. Black Perspectives emerged as an outgrowth of the original AAIHS blog founded by Dr. Chris Cameron in 2014 as part of his efforts to build AAIHS. I began writing for the platform in 2017, in 2018 I became an associate editor, and in January 2019, I assumed the role of senior editor.
Balancing Work and Life Commitments
IRT’s Associate Director and Manager of Programs Kate Slater shares her insights on time management.
Over the course of the past few years, I’ve been working full-time while also enrolled as a full-time doctoral student, and I’ve learned a thing or two about time management over those years. In 2016, it felt like a near-impossible undertaking to be advising a cohort of 45 students at the IRT, going on the road to recruit, and also attending three hour seminars three days a week at the University of New Hampshire. I floundered for a few months as I came to terms with a new piece of my identity, and as a super Type-A human being, it was a profoundly humbling experience to realize that, quite frankly, I couldn’t do it all.
Alumni Accolades – July 2020
~2014 Cohort~
Jonathan Cortez, IRT ‘14 accepted the César Chávez Fellowship pre/post doc from Dartmouth College starting in fall 2020. Jonathan will be working in the department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies until 2022.
Joshua Abreu, IRT ’14 received a Doctor in Philosophy – Educational Leadership after successfully defended his dissertation at UConn’s Neag School of Education in the Department of Educational Leadership in March 2020. A brief bio is included below:
My research interest centers on how college professors across different academic disciplines learn to teach and navigate academia—particularly professors who teach and research issues of diversity and equity. I believe my scholarship contributes to understanding and support of the professional success of faculty committed to equity. For my dissertation, I studied how Criminology/Criminal Justice professors have learned to include critical and marginalized perspectives of crime and crime control into their teaching. I particularly focused on professors responsible for teaching the students most impacted by the unjust criminal justice system (e.g., Black, Latinx, and low-income students).
Prior to UConn, I worked as a retention specialist and adjunct instructor at Northern Essex Community College (NECC) in Lawrence, MA. At NECC, I helped establish the Student Success Center, which provided retention counseling and culturally-sustaining supports to Latinx college students. Before NECC, I worked as a sworn part-time police officer in New Hampshire and then became a licensed social worker for Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. My experiences in law enforcement, social work, and education has positioned me to take an interdisciplinary and practical approach to teaching and researching social inequities in higher education. I earned a bachelor’s and master’s in Criminal Justice from the University of Massachusetts – Lowell.
~2011 Cohort~
Congratulations to Dr. Anthony Urena, IRT ’11 who successfully defended his dissertation and will be joining Princeton as a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the fall.
Aria Halliday, IRT ’11 was awarded the Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship for a year dedicated to research with no service or teaching responsibilities for 2020-2021. Aria also accepted an Assistant Professor position at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and African American and Africana Studies program.
~2008 Cohort~
Adom Getachow, IRT ‘08 was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education in the article, “Prominent Scholars Threaten to Boycott Colleges That Don’t Support Contingent Faculty During Pandemic.”
~2007 Cohort~
Heather Moore Roberson, IRT ‘07/’10 is a recipient of the 2020 Thoburn Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Thoburn Award for Excellence in Teaching is presented to a faculty member who has been at Allegheny College for 10 years or less.
~2004 Cohort~
Jessica Bardill, IRT ‘04 has received tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor of Indigenous Literature and Cultures at Concordia University.
Thank you to IRT for your brilliance, support, and endurance…I am making sure to give back to many of the places and people that got me here. Keep lifting, keep climbing, keep fighting, keep changing.
~2000 Cohort~
Sherri Ann Charleston, IRT ’00 was named chief diversity and inclusion officer at Harvard University beginning. Read article in the Harvard Gazette.
Letter from the Executive Director
Dear IRT Community,
I hope you are healthy and well. Our current moment requires that we do more than ever before to live up to our values.
At the IRT, we are steadfast in our resolve to advance diversity in education, and proud to advocate for and support our alumni in their work. Their commitment to making education a tool for radical imagination has and will always guide us. Their research that challenges assumptions of our histories and creates better futures motivates our efforts. More recently, the transformation of the virtual classroom–securing the ability for students to learn amidst pandemic–inspires our organization to improve our community building. We believe the IRT has tools to meet this moment and we are ready to work alongside you.
As Executive Director, I am here to champion inclusive teaching visions and strengthen our community of educators. I’ve shared various links on our Facebook and private pages for how you can support the current movements towards gender, racial, ethnic, and economic justice. We encourage our alumni and scholars to share any readings, syllabi, petitions, or examples of work. These tools will be linked here. It is important to me that the IRT and our wider family of schools and organizations practice the values we seek to hold. We hope your past and present engagement with the IRT bolsters your individual and collective actions in the days ahead.
We remain steadfast in our vision of a socially just world where education is a tool for liberation. Join us.
Take care,
LaShawnda
LaShawnda Brooks
Executive Director, IRT
IRT’s Kate Slater on NBC Today
Kate Slater, Associate Director & Manager of Programs at the IRT, wrote on NBC Today about ways that White folks can support their Black peers during this time. She is also a lecturer on the history of race and racism at the University of New Hampshire and a doctoral candidate in the Department of Education.
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers 
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