Meet Letisha Brown | Black Feminist, Assistant Professor of Sociology & Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Letisha Brown and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Letisha, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
Zora Neal Hurston (my favorite birthday twin) wrote that, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer,” (Their Eyes Were Watching God). At the end or beginning of each year, I find myself coming back to this quote to understand all that has transpired over the last 365-ish days. For a long time, I’ve felt as though I’ve been walking (stumbling) through years that ask questions: can you survive this trauma, this loss? Will you ever feel whole, or happy again? Who are you? Why are you here? What do you even want out of this life?

More recently however, I’ve been actively trying to walk in my power and live my truth: to enter a season that answers questions.

I have, year upon year, moment upon moment, survived trauma(s), and loss(es) that have left me feeling spent, halved, and in the “depths of despair,” (thank you Anne Shirley). At the same time, these trying times have made it clear to me who I am (a survivor, a writer, a dreamer) and why I am here (to write, to dream, to create, to breathe, and thrive). What I want out of this life is to be able to suffer, knowing that it will not last always, knowing that joy is always just around the corner.

There are years that ask questions, and sometimes these questions hurt (wound), sometimes these same questions open us up to wonders we never thought ourselves capable of dreaming. There are also years that answer these questions, sometimes with a kiss, a promotion, or a book written.

And, joy is, always kist around the corner.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am, by profession, an (assistant) professor of sociology. My path to this position was not an easy one. I am the first in my family to get a PhD, and sociology isn’t a field that the majority of people I knew before I pursued this life was even considered as a path forward. I have endured economic constraints, suffered trauma (e.g., physical and emotional abuse), lost people close to me in ways I never imagined, and often walked through a world where I received little if any empathy from those around me. However, I have had mentors, family (blood and chosen, alike), friends, and sponsors who have supported my journey forward. I have been lied on, harassed, cut down on social media, and assaulted in person, often because I do not fit with what people assume a “professor” is supposed to look like, speak like, dress like, and/or act like. Nevertheless, I keep moving forward.

Along the way, I have learned time and time again, that not everyone who smiles in your face is your friend, ally, or even a person who believes in your fundamental right to human decency and respect.

I have learned, too, that at times I can be my own worse enemy. Holding on to doubt, or limiting beliefs, getting bogged down by the negativity of others has threatened to keep me in a chokehold–to stifle my ability to write, speak, dream, and/or imagine a world in which my Black-woman-ness would be valued, cherished, and handled with care. I write, speak, and dream on.

Professionally I am a scholar: I research, teach, and practice service to my discipline, college, department, university and community. I am also a mentor, a writer (pencils, pens, paper, journal, and laptop), a public speaker, and budding public intellectual.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Now that I am in my second year of living in the city, I have a clear idea of the places that I like, love, and avoid. If I had a friend visiting for a week, I would aim to go to a show (i.e., concert, theater, ballet, comedy show, etc.), eat at some of my favorite places (e.g., Pepp & Delores; The Gaslight; Sacred Beast; Nolia Cafe, Kiki, or the Metropole). I would take them on walks through Clifton and Northside, grab drinks at places like Nostalgia and Ludlow Wines, and of course give them a walking tour of my day to day life on the campus of UC.

We’d spend out days writing, chatting, and reading at the Upside Brew. Grab a light lunch, take in a show, and then have an amazing dinner (appetizers included) and maybe grab some ice cream at Graters after. I’d want to take a trek across one of the many bridges that we have in town, and hopefully have time to take in some art at a museum, or just a cool spot in town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My success, whatever that may mean to those outside of myself, is largely a result of having people in my corner who helped to nurture my passions, my creativity, my intellect, and my joy. Becoming a professor was not my dream as a I was growing into myself as a Black-girl-woman in a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal, heterosexist (hooks, 1984) social world. However, I always knew that I would eventually find myself on a college campus studying on subject or another (I did grow up around universities and colleges for most of my life after all).

However, Black feminism, was my entryway into Black studies (Africana Studies specifically), and to my eventual future as a professor of sociology. I changed my major at the start of my 3rd year of undergrad. I transferred from the University of Pittsburgh (after a dismal academic display), to the University of Northern Colorado in 2007. I decided that year that I would major in Africana Studies, and work hard enough to realistically apply to the university’s McNair Scholars Program (named for astronaut and physicist, Dr. Ronald E. McNair). As a McNair Scholar, I found joy in research and writing, and set my sights on a PhD. program in sociology to follow in the footsteps of authors that I read for my research including Drs. Patricia Hill Collins, Margaret L. Hunter, and eventually Verna Keith.

I never thought about sociology as a field of study, but the words and works of Black women in the field, opened my imagination to previously unknown possibilities. So, I applied to PhD. programs in sociology.

Getting to the point where I am today: a tenure-track, assistant professor of sociology at an R`1 institution, was a hard and long road. It is also one I never would’ve considered without Black women and Black feminism. I am grateful to the McNair Scholar’s Program and the University of Northern Colorado for seeing and nurturing the potential that they say in me (even when I didn’t recognize it myself). I am grateful for the mentoring relationships that I built as a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, relationships that have sustained, nurtured, protected, and celebrated me–especially when I felt unworthy of protection and/or celebration.

Because of the care I received, I have written my first full monograph (under contract with Rutgers University Press), I have held tenure-track positions (the first at Virginia Tech), taught, mentored, written for the public, given talks, and am thinking through new projects daily.

I shout out the Black women who directly (family, friends, mentors) and indirectly (scholars, poets, artists of all varieties) who have shaped the woman that I am, and the woman I am constantly growing into. I am, because you (we) are.

Website: https://www.drletishaecbrown.com/

Instagram: @letisha002

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/letisha-brown-phd-68500377/

Twitter: @letisha122

Other: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0DKkwKoAAAAJ&hl=en