Today’s Project 100 memory comes from Kelly Duke Bryant.  Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Kelly and her family moved to Fort Thomas, Kentucky, when she was two years old.  Located across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, she grew up in Fort Thomas, attended public schools, and graduated from Highlands High School.  Her father was a journalist who worked for several newspapers owned by the major media company, Scripps-Howard.  During her time in Kentucky, he held various posts as an editor for both the Kentucky Post and the Cincinnati Post.  Kelly’s mother was a social worker before she became a mother.  While she was raising Kelly, her sister, and her two brothers, she worked intermittently at several jobs.  After Kelly began attending college, her mother returned to social work, where she helped at an organization dedicated to helping first-time, at-risk young mothers in Northern Kentucky.  One transformative moment for her during high school was attending the five-week Governor’s Scholars Program in the summer before her senior year.  It was a residential experience where she interacted with peers who shared her passion for intellectual issues, and it felt quite different from Highlands High School.  As a result of this experience, Kelly knew that she wanted to attend a small liberal arts college. She ended up choosing Kenyon College in Ohio over Carleton College due to a great scholarship offer and its closer proximity to her family.  When she began at Kenyon, she thought she was going to become a pediatrician.  However, she did not love her biology class, and she did love a class that she took on Medieval European history.  The young professor who taught this class approached Kelly at the end of the course and told her that she was very good at doing historical work and should consider majoring in history.  She followed his advice and loved almost every minute of her major.  In the Fall of her sophomore year, she attended a Study Abroad Fair.  She wanted to study French in a non-western country and selected Senegal.  The next semester she took a course on African history with Clifton Crais and loved it.  This confirmed her decision to study abroad in Senegal, which she did in the Spring semester of her junior year.  She had two host families, one Muslim and one Catholic, and it was an amazing experience.  She is still in contact with both families to this day, and it was an incredibly enriching part of her life.  When she returned, she worked with Crais on her honors thesis on the idea of Africa in the Rasta movement and the evolution of the Rastafarian movement in the United States, the Caribbean, and Africa.  The thesis ended up 150 pages and helped prove to her and her would-be graduate programs that she could do extensive historical research.  She took a year off and moved, along with several friends, to Portland, Oregon.  A few days after arriving in Portland, the September 11^th attacks took place.  She planned to go to graduate school regardless, but 9/11 made it very difficult to find good jobs. So, she applied to study African history and was accepted at the University of Wisconsin, where she finished her Master’s degree in 2004.  That same year, she began her doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University.  Hopkins was quite different from Wisconsin, and she enjoyed both experiences.  Hopkins was a smaller program, but she had great mentorship from her advisors, Pier Larson and Sara Berry.  She completed archival research in France.  In Senegal, she did both archival research and field work, conducting forty interviews with Senegalese who had experienced the French education system.  After returning to the United States, she began writing her dissertation and applying for jobs.

***** 

I remember interviewing with Janet Lindman and Cory Blake for the position at Rowan at the African Studies Association in the Fall of 2008.  I received an invite to come to campus very soon thereafter in December.  I remember Lee Kress meeting me at the train, a “prince” and a gentleman, which was a very nice introduction to Rowan.  I went to a lovely dinner with David Applebaum and Lee.  We had a breakfast the next morning in the Tower, and I went on a tour with students.  I remember my research talk and meeting with the Department and then a teaching demonstration in an Historical Methods class.  When Rowan offered me the position, I was really excited because it was a very challenging job market.  In fact, I was the last Assistant Professor hired at Rowan for many years. 

My first semester I taught two sections of Sub-Saharan African History to 1800 and an upper-level colloquium.  Right from the beginning, I learned that there was a great range of student abilities and motivation levels.  It was a period of adjustment.  In my second semester, I was more comfortable, and I had several great students.  In addition to teaching, I soon became involved in the Africana Studies program, first joining the Advisory Group and later joining the Council, taking an active role in organizing events. 

My colleagues in the Department were very welcoming.  Lee continued to take an interest in my success at Rowan, in part because he was a native of Baltimore, giving us a connection.  Jim Heinzen was my official mentor, and he provided great, practical advice, often delivered with dry humor.  When I speak to others about Rowan, I always mention the collegial atmosphere and how everyone gets along, making it a wonderful place to work.

After a few years, I became co-advisor with Jim of both Phi Alpha Theta and the Student History Association.  I enjoyed interacting with the students in this role, learning about them more deeply, including often about their interests beyond history.

Outside of the Department, I was heavily involved with the Faculty Center.  For three years, I ran the New Faculty Learning Community and, later, a learning community for faculty parents.  I served on the Faculty Center Board for five years.  I loved this work because I got to know faculty from all across the campus, and I really enjoyed the professional development work that came along with it, honing my skills in many ways.

I have spent a lot of time involved in the International Studies program.  I became the Acting Coordinator when the founder, Cory Blake, became Acting Chair of the History Department.  Cory returned to the role for a year and a half, but I then returned to the position again when she moved to the Dean’s Office.  I really enjoyed working with students and even enjoyed the extensive curriculum planning (if not the actual proposing of the particular curricular items).  I am proud that the major stayed strong even during the pandemic, and I was able to hand it off in 2022 in good shape.

I have really appreciated the support that the Department and the University have given me for my research.  My colleagues have been very helpful in navigating the many challenges of academic publishing.  I am proud of my first book and am excited about my ongoing book project and current research.

*****

This is part of the Department of History’s “Project 100,” the collection and sharing of one hundred memories by Glassboro State College and Rowan University alumni and staff in celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the founding of Glassboro Normal School, later Glassboro State College, and now Rowan University.  Thanks to Laurie Lahey for helping proofread and edit the final versions.  Email carrigan@rowan.edu with questions or corrections.  You can find the Link to all of the Project 100 entries on the Web:  https://chss.rowan.edu/departments/history/alumni_highlights/project_100/