This year the African American Studies (AFAM) program will say goodbye to two much-loved professors, Gayle Pemberton and Renee Romano. Both have taken on leadership roles for African American Studies during their time here and many students are anxious to see how their departure will affect the program.
Pemberton is the current African American Studies Chair, and teaches classes in both English and AFAM. Her areas of expertise include nineteenth- and twentieth-century American Literature, African American Literature, American Film, and Nonfiction writing.
Pemberton has been teaching at the University for fourteen years, inspiring many students along the way. Her students seem to sing nothing but praises.
“Gayle Pemberton is the best thing about the AFAM program,” said Sonia Davis ’10. “Her classes are amazing, as well as her level of interest in her students. It’s like she’s having a conversation with you about what she really loves, but you walk away learning so much.”
Rashida Richardson ’08 had similar sentiments.
“She’s one of the best professors I’ve ever had at this school,” she said. “She makes me happy that I came here. Everyone that comes across her loves her.”
Pemberton considers her tenure at the University a good one.
“I will cherish forever a number of my classes and many of my students,” Pemberton said. “They have made me a better teacher and thinker… I was lucky to find fabulous colleagues here in the AFAM program as well as the English Department. There have been great disappointments, as there always are in life, some that have to do with institutional structures and some with the ongoing struggle against racism. There are transformations within the program I might like to have seen, but they have not occurred. But I don’t think the program will suffer. AFAM isn’t going down the tubes.”
Pemberton has won several awards and accolades, including the Binswanger Teaching Award, the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, New Jersey Humanities Award for Writing, the W.E.B. DuBois Fellowship and the Ford Foundation Fellowship.
Beginning next year Pemberton teach for three years at Mount Holyoke before retiring. Her motivations for leaving the University right now are personal.
“It’s just the right time,” she said.
Romano has been teaching at the University since 1996. She is former chair of the AFAM Program, and has taught classes as an associate professor of AFAM Studies, history and American Studies. She specializes in twentieth-century African American history with a particular focus on the civil rights movement, marriage, sexuality and historical memory.
Romano received the Carol Baker Memorial Prize for Outstanding Junior Faculty in 1999 and the Mellon New Initiatives Grant in 2007. This year Romano has been on leave, and is currently working on a book that examines Southerners’ efforts to come to terms with the racial crimes of the civil rights era.
Next fall, Romano and her husband will both be joining the faculty at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. Romano will teach as a member of the History Department, while her husband will take over as Dean of Arts and Sciences.
“It’s a good move for us and our family,” Romano said. “But I love Wesleyan and will miss my colleagues and students very much.”
Her students feel the same way.
“Professor Romano made me want to major in African American Studies,” said Jessica Posner ’09. “She opened my eyes to the way the world really works. The passion she brings to the classroom makes learning, not something you feel you have to do, but something you really care about.”
Although she isn’t teaching any classes this semester, students still find Romano to be accessible and welcoming.
“I think her willingness to help and give advice even while on sabbatical just goes to show her incredible commitment to her students and to African American Studies,” said Briana Deutsch ’09.
The African American Studies program is currently in the midst of adjusting to the changes brought on by Pemberton and Romano’s departures.
“There are other really great professors in the program, but I’m anxious to see how what the new hiring will do to fill the huge holes that will be left,” Davis said.
The African American Studies Major Committee is using this transition as a moment of opportunity to think about where the department is headed.
“Activism and social justice have been the birthmark of the African American Studies department,” said Pat Senat ’08, the major committee chair. “I hope that students and faculty alike can join together and continue to ask important questions of our society, and to envision creative solutions to those problems. We have to remain at the helm of figuring out what are the pressing issues of today, and at the same time, work to understand the emerging problems of tomorrow. It takes a lot of introspection and investigation to do this, but we are most definitely up to the task.”
As of yet, there is no hiring committee, but it is likely that new faculty will be hired to fill the spots. These two acts, however, will be tough ones to follow.
“Gayle Pemberton and Renee Romano are preeminent scholars in their fields and areas of focus which make them hard to replace,” Senat said. “But more importantly, they are caring individuals who embody the highest values of Wesleyan University.”
Leave a Reply