Pizza and Prof Brings Thoughtful Conversation and Community Together

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On November 13 at 4:30 p.m., students gathered to share pizza and engage in a thoughtful discussion with Dr. Yolanda Covington-Ward, who shared insights on navigating academia as a Black woman and information on her research. The event took place amidst the cozy chairs in the Maple Hall lounge, which gave an intimate feel to the time-honored tradition of CHC’s Pizza and Prof Night. Shiny red letters spelling out “Pizza and Prof” and a garland of pizza decor greeted students as they walked into a rush of warmth after escaping the November chill. 

Associate dean of recruitment and belonging Anne Marie Russell gave a warm welcome to Dr. Covington-Ward, speaking to the 25 students in attendance. 

“The Pizza and Prof Series is all about giving you a chance to hang out, grab a slice, and get to know some of our amazing professors in a casual and low-pressure setting,” Russell said. “It's one of the ways that we try to make Commonwealth Honors College smaller and feel more connected. Today, we're really excited to have Dr. Yolanda Covington-Ward with us.”

Covington-Ward, who is the chair and professor in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, spoke candidly about her experience as a Black woman in academia and her research, which focuses on embodiment, identity, religion, performance, and politics.

She opened her talk with the percentage of faculty from underrepresented backgrounds in academia, especially in positions of leadership, pointing out that only four percent of all university faculty is comprised of Black women, and that just two percent make up full professors in the US. 

“One of the things that I'm interested in is trying to increase access to these spaces, to make sure that everyone has access to coming into academia, finding a career here, finding a home in academia, because these spaces were not spaces that were designed for us,” Covington-Ward expressed. 

She proceeded to speak about the importance of representation in academia, as well as her personal journey into it. Much of what she spoke about connected to her family history and her curiosity about her roots. Especially poignant was her connection to her grandmother, who left North Carolina and came to New York City to look for more opportunity at age 20.

“Anyone here around 20?” asked Covington-Ward. A few students raised their hands. 

“You can kind of think, she was around your age, like young, idealistic. She said she wanted to find a future in New York,” she continued. 

Covington-Ward spoke about her personal experiences of encountering educational inequalities,  and how her life trajectory changed significantly from the time her mother made the decision to send her to a different, better resourced elementary school to attending a well-funded high school through A Better Chance program, which takes high-achieving students from mainly urban environments and puts them in competitive, well-resourced schools across the country. 

“This was actually a huge inflection point for me,” she said. “Because up until that point … I was going to become the first in my family to go to college, right? So I didn't have anyone who could explain to me how things worked. But being in the ABC program, there were girls in my year, the year before me, who were applying to Ivy League schools, who were applying to all different kinds of colleges. It was having these role models that were similar to me, similar backgrounds, but who were achieving things, that helped me to see that I could do it too.”

While she initially applied to Brown University through their eight-year medical program, she realized her passion was in Afro-American studies. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Afro-American studies from Brown, she went to the University of Michigan to earn a PhD in cultural anthropology. In her cohort of 40 people, she was the only Black student.

Covington-Ward explained that she experienced imposter syndrome and it took a lot of work to stop questioning herself. 

“Once I realized, you know what? Just go for it. Stop thinking about what people are thinking of you. If you have questions, ask the questions; if you want to engage in a conversation, do that. I felt free to do that,” she said. 

She also spoke about her personal experience becoming the legal guardian of one of her sisters at 22 and the importance of family while she was pursuing her academics. In that moment, she paused to collect herself and mentioned to the crowd how this experience still has such emotional pull on her. She emphasized that her academic journey was not just individual; it was about her family, too.  

Covington-Ward’s movement between different parts of the country and in her academic career inspired her to study the movement of Black bodies, of which she gave an example through her research on the Liberian diaspora in the United States.

At the conclusion of the first part of the evening, attendees munched on pizza from Antonio’s while asking interesting questions. 

Attendee Sharon Tackie, a sophomore legal studies and economics student, said that Covington-Ward’s talk was “very, very poignant.” 

“The things that were brought up in this talk are still relevant … It was really a mix between Dr. Covington-Ward's story and many of the challenges she personally faced and how she reconciled with that as a Black student trying to do well at a predominantly white institution, trying to figure out how to move through her educational journey in a way that was true to herself, in a way that she could be successful,” Tackie reflected. “I'm very happy to have come to this talk.”

From left: Dean Mari Castañeda, Professor Yolanda Covington-Ward, Associate Dean Ann Marie Russell