Carpio Given Tenure In Two Departments

In a move that has delighted many of her colleagues and former students, the University has granted Professor Glenda R. Carpio tenure in both the English and African and African American Studies departments.

“I’m extremely happy both for her and for the College because I think it’s only in the best interest of the students that we’ll be able to take classes with her and we’ll be able to be exposed to her mind and her enthusiasm for the material,” said former student and thesis advisee Andrew C. Coles ’09.

Carpio arrived at Harvard in 2002, following the widely-publicized departure of African American studies Professors K. Anthony Appiaha and Cornel R. West ’74 for Princeton the previous year. She quickly built a reputation as a student favorite, both for her engaging lectures and her accessibility to undergraduates outside the classroom.

Carpio’s colleagues and teaching fellows described her as warm and sensitive.

“I’ve noticed that students who have taken one class with her often go back for a second class, or will ask her to direct their senior theses,” said Professor Daniel G. Donoghue, director of undergraduate studies for the English department. “She seems to make strong connections.”

Coles echoed this sentiment, saying he often visited Carpio to discuss the non-academic side of his life—and she was always willing to listen.

“She is so committed to every student that she has,” Coles said. “She wants to see you succeed in everything that you do.”

Carpio also possesses a gift for navigating difficult topics in the classroom, said Christina A. Knight, a graduate student who served as a teaching fellow for Carpio’s class African and African American Studies 112: “Black Humor.”

“She manages to keep the richness of humor as a topic of study, but also manages to keep the humor going as something fun,” Knight said.

Knight added that Carpio was extremely careful to respect the complex dynamics of race in her classroom.

Sabrina Sadique, another of Carpio’s TFs, also emphasized Carpio’s unique approach to classroom participation as a teaching strength. Sadique said that Carpio often spends the first 20-25 minutes of an hour-long class lecturing on a text and then opens the floor for discussion among her students. For students used to only talking in section, this is a welcome surprise, said Sadique.

Carpio has also been involved in several students groups in her time at Harvard. She has served as the faculty advisor both for Black Community and Student Theater, a campus theater group that produces the works of African-American playwrights, and Fuerza Latina, an undergraduate organization that provides support for Harvard’s Latino students.

These organizations reflect her own diversity, as she is a Guatemalan-born Latina woman who teaches both the English language and African-American history for her profession.

“I would say that she reminds us how futile it is to categorize people by the convenient labels that we throw around,” Donoghue said.

—Staff writer Evan T. R. Rosenman can be reached at erosenm@fas.harvard.edu