ABSTRACT
The author writes this chapter after having finished her first year on the tenure-track at UCLA, and now supporting graduate students of her own. In her contribution to The New Black Sociologist, she offers a montage of short stories, in no particular order, that will offer some insight into the journey of one young Blackademic. The author’s only intention with this soul-bearing chapter is to lend some hope, some laughter, some encouragement and mutual recognition to our generation of Black graduate students. We were a crew, a team, a clic. Us four Sociology graduate students – Weeam Hammoudeh, Trina Vithayathil, Orly Clerge, and Erica Jade Mullen. We were all Fellows at the Pop Center, and were conveniently assigned desks in the corner of the basement, sitting one next to the other. We all worked random hours to fit our very different lifestyles. Aldon Morris is a large part of the reason why she happily stand as a proud sociologist today.
