(Photo credit: Dan Holmes | Senior Photographer | Brandeis University Office of Marketing and Communication)
Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom was presented with the Gittler Prize by Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz in an award ceremony and lecture on October 27th, 2023. Tressie also visited classes and engaged with the Brandeis community for three days as part of her residency.
"The times are calling us into a moment. It is a time, I suspect, that feels a lot like Du Bois' moment in time, in part because there are a lot of the same forces. And this is the space where I try to write and I try to intervene and where I try to work, I try to demonstrate and show what it means to critically engage in public discourse in a way that encourages people to be boldly curious at a time when it is very risky to be curious,” Tressie said in her lecture.
Sarah Mayorga, an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Sociology at Brandeis, nominated Tressie for the Gittler Prize. Mayorga said “Students love Dr. McMillan Cottom's unique voice and beautiful prose. They love how she weaves sociological insight with personal history. She centers the experience and expertise of Black women to show that we better understand the world when we take their perspective seriously. From an instructor's point of view, her work is a godsend.”
Join us in congratulating Tressie on this well-deserved prize and recognition of her work!