Anthony Abraham Jack '07
Name
Anthony Abraham Jack
Place of Birth
Miami, FL
Current Home
Cambridge, MA
Education
Amherst College 2007: Women’s and Gender Studies; Religion (Cum Laude)
Why I chose Amherst
It was the best school and it gave me the most financial aid.
Most memorable class
Kristin Bumiller’s States of Poverty. I took three courses with her that really built on each other in very special ways.
Most memorable or most influential professor
Kristin Bumiller. A forever mentor. We still meet up to this day to celebrate every victories and major accomplishments.
Research Interests
Education, Culture, Race, Social Class, First Generation College Students
Awards and Prizes
Amherst College Harold Wade Jr. ’68 Fellowship (2016-2019), National Center for Institutional Diversity Emerging Diversity Scholar, University of Michigan (2016), Tribute to Black Men Faculty Award, Association of Black Harvard Women, Harvard University (2016), Graduate Student Paper Award, Education Problems Division, Society for the Study of Social Problems (2015), Star Family Prize for Excellence in Advising Award, Harvard College (2015), Charles V. Willie Minority Graduate Student Award, Eastern Sociological Society (2015), Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award, Section on Children and Youth, American Sociological Association (2014), David Lee Stevenson Award for best Graduate Student Paper, Honorable Mention, Sociology of Education Section, American Sociological Association (2014), Harvard College Race Relations Advisor Award (2013), The Obed Finch Slingerland Memorial Prize (2007), The Third Moseley Prize (Senior Thesis in Religion) (2007), John Sumner Runnells Memorial Award for Scholarship and Citizenship (2006).
Favorite Book
Too many to name, but the Harry Potter series have a very special place in my heart.
Favorite Author
James Baldwin
Tips for aspiring writers?
Start!
Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author
It was an improbable as my journey to Amherst. I knew it was something I had to do to, but was absolutely lost when I got started. I reached out to other people who I trusted. Transforming the dissertation into a book is not easy. The audience is different. The vocabulary needed to express your ideas is different. Knowing how to strike the right tone was something that took time and was very stressful. But I knew that my students trusted me to tell their stories so I tried to write it in such a way that our parents, many of whom had not gone to college, would not be alienated. But that was not the only goal; I wanted to write it in such a way that they felt invited in to the conversation along with college presidents, professors, high school teachers, administrators, and students.
Anthony Abraham Jack (Ph.D., Harvard University, 2016) is a Junior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows and Assistant Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He holds the Shutzer Assistant Professorship at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
Learn more about The Privileged Poor on Anthony's website.
Photo Credit: John Deputy