The purpose of this APA Blog series, What It’s Like to be an HBCU Faculty Member, is to spotlight faculty members in our profession who work at historically Black colleges and universities, which are minority serving institutions. The blog also aims to introduce and familiarize faculty members at majority serving institutions with the distinct perspectives, experiences, and, sometimes, limitations, that are unique to students and faculty at historically Black colleges and universities. If you have a recommendation for a faculty member at an HBCU, or other minority serving institution, who deserves recognition, please feel free to nominate them!
Brandon Hogan is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Howard University. He writes about criminal punishment, Critical Race Theory, and Hegel’s political philosophy. He is currently revising a book manuscript titled, Healing the Wounds of the Spirit: Toward a Hegelian Theory of Criminal Justice. He earned a JD at Harvard Law School, earned an MA in Philosophy from Tufts University, and completed a PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh.
Why did you choose to teach at an HBCU (Historically Black College or University) over a PWI (Predominately White Institution)?
While finishing my degree at Pitt, I found out about an assistant professor position in philosophy at Howard and thought it would be perfect for me. As a graduate student, I fantasied about teaching philosophy at Howard, my alma mater. Indeed, Howard is the only HBCU with a freestanding philosophy department, which made the prospect of working there even more intriguing.
I thought that Howard would be a great place for me to develop intellectually, given that I knew professors in English, African-American Studies, and Political Science. Interdisciplinary work can be very fruitful at Howard given that most professors have research interests that involve African Americans or the African diaspora.
I also believed that Howard would be a welcoming, comfortable place to work. I would be joining many of the professors who introduced me to philosophy. I would also be allowed to be myself. Oftentimes Black faculty members feel the need to make their non-Black colleagues comfortable, both in their day-to-day interactions and through their scholarship. I’m not great at code switching and I had no desire to spend half of my day in a different “code.” I wanted an institution that would allow me to teach courses on hip-hop, Critical Race Theory, and Black Lives Matter. I didn’t want my promotion to turn on how well I conformed with the norms of a PWI. Now, this is not to say that I would not have been comfortable at any PWI. There are many departments that embrace diverse persons and points of view. But, I knew that my place at Howard would not be in question.
Additionally, I chose Howard because I care about Black students. While I’ve always worked hard to help students, I feel a unique connection to Black students, for obvious reasons. I came to college knowing nothing about philosophy. I was able to study with several young Black professors, an experience that I now realize greatly influenced my decision to pursue graduate study in the discipline. I wanted to provide that same opportunity to other Black students. Indeed, even if I worked at an PWI, I would make an effort to connect with and support Black philosophy students.
Like any institution, Howard and other HBCUs have their problems. Many of the problems at HBCUs stem from having limited resources. Before I arrived at Howard, the administration threatened to close the philosophy department. I’m very glad that they backed away from that plan, but we still face challenges. For instance, my travel and research budgets are lower than that of many of my colleagues at PWIs. Indeed, there were times when I wondered whether I’d be better off at a PWI. But, at this point I’m very happy that I decided to stay at my HBCU. I don’t think that I’d find a similar intellectual environment anywhere else.
What unique perspectives do you think HBCU students offer to classroom discussions?
I think students of color offer unique perspectives in classroom discussions regardless of where they attend school. I think that HBCU classrooms are particularly valuable because students tend to share many beliefs about politics and race. At first, this may seem like a disadvantage, but it is not. When students largely agree on a topic—affirmative action in university admissions, for instance—they are allowed to explore the topic in more depth. Instead of debating whether affirmative action is justified, students debate how affirmative action programs should operate. They discuss whether affirmative action should be understood as a form of reparations or as a means to achieve diversity. They also think about who should receive affirmative action.
The depth of philosophical conversation at an HBCU is also enhanced by the environment itself. HBCU students are able to think and talk in a space where they will not be judged negatively for their views. I can imagine that many Black students at prestigious PWIs have been accused of unfairly benefiting from affirmative action. Thus, these students may feel uncomfortable advocating for affirmative action in public. At Howard, students get positive, yet critical feedback from their classmates. For instance, students may passionately disagree about the usefulness of ideal political theory for theorizing racial justice, but they are united in that they agree that many American institutions are profoundly unjust to Black people.
Because students at HBCUs are more likely to feel comfortable speaking about race in class, the entire class is enriched by hearing about their experiences. For instance, in my Critical Race Theory course, we discussed the concept of micro-aggression. Almost every student had experienced a micro-aggression and almost all were willing to share their stories. The reading was greatly enhanced by these real-time accounts.
I also believe that the HBCU environment positively affects student confidence. I can imagine that students who are comfortable speaking up in college are more likely to speak up in graduate school and in the profession. Howard students are comfortable in their views and gain the tools to argue for those views persuasively. I believe that HBCU students that study philosophy are an asset to the profession because they are unafraid to shake things up, to be gadflies.
As an HBCU faculty member, what is your perspective on the discipline’s aim to diversify?
I welcome any effort to diversify the profession of philosophy. I’m glad to see several summer institutes aimed at increasing minority representation in the discipline and I’m also happy to see more diverse panels at APA meetings. Though, as a faculty member at an HBCU, I worry that the largest barrier to diversity may be financial.
There are many Howard students who are interested in philosophy. Most Howard students are required to take a philosophy course to graduate. Some students from my introductory classes actually go on to minor or major in philosophy. But, I believe that there are many students who are very interested in philosophy yet do not choose philosophy as a major because they believe that taking on a philosophy major is not a wise financial decision. Though, we know that this isn’t true, the myth persists. Though all students must worry about their financial futures, the problem is aggravated by race. Many Black college students believe (rightly) that they cannot afford to make bad financial decisions.
Further, among the philosophy majors at Howard, very few aspire to become professional philosophers. A large percentage of our majors plan to go to law school. I think many of our students recognize that the philosophy job market isn’t great, especially if you consider the opportunities for “good” jobs. Many of our majors believe that law school will provide more career options. Of course, I believe that we could use more philosophically informed lawyers, so I fully support our student’s decisions to go to law school.
Those students that aspire to become professional philosophers face additional barriers. Many of our students want to explore issues connected to racial justice in graduate school. They worry that many of the top programs will not support their interests. Additionally, students worry about being a severe minority in graduate school. They are horrified to hear that I was the only Black student in my MA program and one of two Black students in my PhD program. They also recognize that many top PhD programs in philosophy only have one Black faculty member. This can be discouraging, given that faculty change institutions often. In short, the students who are interested in the profession have several legitimate worries about their viability in graduate school and beyond.
Thus, in addition to sponsoring summer institutes, the profession should seek to create and inform minority students about career opportunities outside of academia. Students need to know that they can make a decent living doing philosophy. I believe programs like Minorities and Philosophy are a good starting point for making Black students more comfortable with the idea of pursuing graduate study. The next step would be to hire more Black and brown faculty members.
Did you go to an HBCU yourself and how do you think it affected your relationship to Philosophy?
I attended Howard University for my bachelor’s degree. I minored in philosophy. I think my time at Howard greatly influenced my attitude toward academic philosophy. The profession is largely white, but I had no notion of philosophy being a “white” thing when I was introduced to it. Most of my philosophy professors were Black.
This was important for two reasons. While I was introduced to philosophy by reading Plato, Rawls, and David Lewis, I was introduced to these figures by a Black male professor. Though the authors were white, I didn’t feel distanced from them because my professor was engaged and interested in the readings. Actually, I fell in love with philosophy after reading Lewis’s “Mad Pain and Martian Pain.” I thought to myself, “These ideas are so interesting and I can’t believe Lewis gets paid to write fun papers like this.” Had I engaged with academic philosophy in a different setting—a PWI, for instance—I might have felt the discipline was not for me.
Second, while I engaged with the philosophical canon at Howard, I was also exposed to several Black philosophers. I read Kwasi Wiredu, Paget Henry, Martin Luther King, and Fanon in my philosophy classes. I was so excited about Black Skin, White Masks, that I took it with me to the beach on spring break. So, having Black professors was also important because they exposed me to Black philosophers. As an undergraduate, I didn’t make a distinction between Rawls and Fanon. To me, they were both thinking about justice. I think I have carried this sentiment with me as a professional.
I gravitated toward analytic philosophy as a student at Howard, though I knew nothing about the analytic-continental divide. I don’t think I had the patience for Bergson or Heidegger as a college senior. I continued in the analytic tradition in graduate school, studying at Tufts and Pitt. I believe that my experience at Howard influenced my eventual academic focus. Howard’s motto is Veritas et Utilitas (Truth and Service). Though not explicitly, many professors at Howard convinced me that academic work should relate to social justice. Though I liked thinking about possible worlds and Wittgenstein’s Investigations in graduate school, I eventually decided to write about restorative criminal justice.
Given that people may presuppose homogeneity at an HBCU, how would you define diversity at an HBCU and do you think this conception/experience is unique and/or uniquely valuable?
It’s easy to presuppose that students at HBCUs are homogeneous. There’s a sense in which this is true. Howard students largely support affirmative action, vote for democratic candidates, and believe that anti-Black racism is alive and well. But there is a great amount of philosophical diversity amid this homogeneity.
For instance, I’ve had several students who were very interested in Nietzsche. One wrote a senior paper arguing that Black activists should reject moral realism as a form of slave morality. Some students are Rawlsians, while others reject Rawls, embracing Charles Mills’s past critiques. That students at Howard are homogenous in some ways allows for a more nuanced form of philosophical diversity. Instead of engaging in surface-level disagreements, Howard students are able to take a deep dive into the details of a philosophical position.
Additionally, Howard students are very interested in topics that extend beyond political and moral philosophy. In my first semester, an undergraduate presented a paper on the philosophy of time. Students were very excited about my course on Wittgenstein’s Investigations, and my course on the philosophy of mind. In these areas, student views are very diverse. Howard students are materialists, dualist, realists, anti-realists, skeptics, quietists, and coherentists.
I’ve found that students at Howard are more excited and engaged than any other group of students I have taught. I think this stems from the level of comfort they feel at an HBCU. Almost everyone in my class is Black and I think this allows students feel that they are in a safe space, a space that is conducive to philosophical reflection. In this way, the lack of racial diversity allows for more open and honest philosophizing.
Shay Welch
Shay Welch is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Spelman College. She is currently the Scholar-in-Residence for the city of Atlanta's public art project; the project is titled "Public Performance Art as Resistance to Epistemic Injustice". Recently, she was the 2020-2021 Carnegie Corporation and Rockefeller Foundation Distinguished Research/Creative Scholar. She was Chair of the Association for Feminist Ethics and Social Theory and is a committee member for the Emotions Matter national non-profit organization. She is especially interested in supporting first generation students and students with cognitive and affective disorders.
