Farah Griffin, 2015 June 9 Box 2
- Highlight
- Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever (Thomas Dunne, 2008). She
Conversations: The New Jazz Studies (Columbia University Press, 2004).
intellectual interests, including Black feminism, Black feminist literary studies, jazz studies, gender and - Abstract Or Scope
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In this interview, Farah Griffin begins by discussing her early life in South Philadelphia, her love of reading, her relationship with her father and how he was impacted by racial prejudice, the demographics of her neighborhood, and her personal study of women's history and black history. She talks about her early education at an integrated Philadelphia magnet school and the Baldwin School. She goes on to address the origins of her admiration for Toni Morrison, her decision to attend Harvard University as an undergraduate, and her mentors at Harvard: Nathan Huggins and Werner Sollors. Griffin talks about her intellectual interests, including Black feminism, Black feminist literary studies, jazz studies, gender and sexuality, and literature. Griffin discusses her PhD program in American Studies at Yale and cites the classes and professors that influenced her. She briefly addresses her time at the University of Pennsylvania and her own activist work. She characterizes the climate of the English department when she arrived at Columbia and how she was immediately embraced by IRWGS and by the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS). Griffin talks about her mentorship with Jean Howard and her involvement in diversity initiatives. She discusses her bookHarlem Nocturne, novelist Ann Petry, and her work spreading black women's intellectual history. Griffin concludes the interview by reflecting on how the student body has changed during her time at Columbia. She specifically addresses generational differences between herself and her students, especially regarding the election of President Barack Obama, the backlash after his election, the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, the Black Lives Matter movement, and anti-sexual violence activism on campus.