This March, we celebrate Women’s History Month and acknowledge the milestones and accomplishments of women throughout history, as well as their strength in the face of adversity. We also shine a spotlight on members of the Michigan State community doing research to advance women’s spaces and share their stories.
Dr. LaShawn Harris is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and former Managing and Book Review Editor for the Journal of African American History (JAAH). Her research and teaching centers on US history with a focus on African American, Black Women’s, and urban histories. Much of Harris’s work draws inspiration from real histories and stories from her childhood in New York.
“I really wanted to write about the histories that my family had always told me and that I grew up around,” she said. “I was really fascinated by these stories, and they’re legendary to me.”
Harris has always been drawn to the idea of storytelling and educating others on histories both widely known and unknown. Her current work hits particularly close to home- Harris is researching an elderly Black woman killed by police in 1984 in the Bronx community she grew up in; Harris was just 10 years old when it happened.
Harris’s passion for amplifying the untold histories of Black women and urban, working-class individuals formed during her graduate studies at Howard University and has been her focus ever since. These stories, Harris explains, can serve as inspiration as we navigate our current world issues. “I think those types of histories, ones that are marginalized or totally excluded from a general narrative of American history, have insightful lessons for our present moment,” she said.
This history comes into play in the classroom as well. Harris has been teaching at Michigan State since 2008, and continues to be inspired by her student’s passion for discovering new aspects of history. She enjoys weaving together past and present to aid in solving current problems. “It’s always insightful for me to hear how my students think about the world, both currently and in the future,” she added.
Harris has felt welcomed and supported by her colleagues at Michigan State since she first stepped on campus, and tries to take advantage of the many opportunities for new research and projects as often as she can. “There’s always a chance for you to shine, and you can get involved in various community outreach efforts that are supported by the department and the College as a whole,” she said.
These community outreach efforts and engaging with the public is particularly important to Harris. It can often seem from an outside point of view that historians focus their work in academic settings, and Harris is proud of the projects that she has gotten to work on outside of academia.
“There was a time where you thought, as a historian, you would only be teaching or writing books, but because there is a public appetite for history now, more folks outside of academia reach out to you for help,” Harris said. She brought up her colleague’s recent work as a consultant on the movie Sinners as an example. Harris herself has consulted on documentaries, for television shows, stories in major outlets like The New Yorker and for the Smithsonian Museum. “That’s the type of work that can be open to you as a historian,” she said.
Each year during Women’s History Month, Harris reflects upon her role as a historian and storyteller and her calling to educate others on lesser-known histories and untold stories. When these stories are brought to light, she explains, it can change entire narratives and perspectives. “The things we thought we knew, change,” she explained. “It makes you think about those particular actors as agents within their own lives, but also having agency in the creation of the nation and our world.”
Harris is also inspired by changemakers in their current landscape who are shaping tomorrow’s history today, some of which are her own students.
“Even as we read the news about all these different things happening, I’m also reading about the many activists who are out there doing advocacy work, and those things give me hope,” she said. “There are so many people out there fighting the good fight. That’s what I hold on to.”
Honorees’ views are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the College of Social Science.