Aman McLeod Item Info
Aman McLeod
Topics:
Aman McLeod:
Interviewer:Please state your name and your title or role at UI.
AM:I’m Aman McLeod. I'm an Assistant Professor of Political Science and I'm Affiliated Faculty at the College of Law and I'm also the Pre-Law advisor.
IN:What is your ethnicity or race? Do you identify as African-American, African, Caribbean, etc.?
AM:I identify as African-American.
IN:Where are you from?
AM:I was born right outside of Washington D.C. in Chevrolet, Maryland. It’s a suburb of Washington. I grew up in and around Washington D.C.
IN:What brought you to UI?
AM:A job. An opportunity for a visiting position at the Law School came up and the Dean thought I was a good fit and he brought me on. Then, while I was here that first year I got asked to help build the pre-law program and I did that. I started teaching a couple of classes in political science and then when a tenure track position came up in Political Science after 3 years they took me on there. The Law School also kept me on as Affiliated faculty. So that’s why I’m over in Poli-Sci, but I still teach over there sometimes.
IN:Have you had any previous experiences that you feel prepared you for UI?
AM:Well, I taught right out of graduate school and while I was in graduate school I taught at a Polish university. And when I finished my PhD, I taught at the University of Michigan for a year. Then as a visitor and then I was at Rutgers University in Camden for 7 years teaching at the Law School and Political Science there. Then I was at the Forte Coastal School of Law for a year. I feel like I had a lot of experience before I came here.
IN:Was it a tough transition moving to Moscow since it’s predominantly white?
AM:No, not really because I guess I'm used to living in spaces where I'm very much a minority. All through school that was the case, then I lived in Poland, which very few people who live in that country are anything other than Polish or Roman Catholic and all that. I navigated that. Being part of a small minority is something I've never really concerned myself with. That doesn't bother me. I remember getting phone calls from friends and emails saying, when I told them I was coming out here, saying, “Hey, are you going to be okay?” The legacy of the white supremacist presence, in North Idaho especially, people remember. But I tell people that I haven't had any problems up here.
IN:Do you feel like you'll stay in this community for a long time? Why or why not?
AM:It’s probably right now the best professional opportunity for me. I don't have any plans to leave at the moment. I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I've got great colleagues, the department has treated me awesome, it’s a really great work environment. I've got no plans to check out. I guess I'm one of those people that as long as everything’s working I'm here. I have no idea what 10 years is going to be. Everything is working great right now and I have no plans to check out.
IN:Did you bring family with you?
AM:I did. I have a wife and a 12 year old son and a 9 year old daughter.
IN:Have you built any strong relationships with any other black people or faculty at UI?
AM:I think I have good relations with many of the faculty of color. So, including Dr. Freeman. So, I don't know anyone I don't consider good colleagues or friends. The only ones I don't consider friends are the ones I don't know very well, because I haven't met them. I feel like I do, absolutely.
IN:Have you had positive experiences related to your race at UI?
AM:Not specifically because of my race. I've had a lot of positive experiences, but it’s not to my knowledge because I'm African-American. I've just have had the opportunity to do some enjoyable and fun things, I've been invited to give some lectures, and to participate on panels. It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been great getting to know the students and I've got great colleagues. So, but I don't connect that in my mind to me being black.
IN:Have you had negative experiences related to your race at UI?
AM:No, not the university. I mean I don't consider certain things– like for example, the incident that happened a couple weeks ago where somebody left those fliers around saying It’s Okay To Be White. I don't consider that directed at me. In fact, I was quoted in an interview in the Moscow Pullman Daily News in which I talked to a reporter about it and I told him I said I laughed when I heard about that because I thought it was funny. I wasn't scared, I wasn't intimidated. I just thought it was, on the face of it: absurd.
But then also, well obviously this person is a coward trying to intimidate people, but it’s so laughably bad that I couldn’t stop laughing. I never felt threatened, by that. No, not really. I mean not anything that doesn’t happen. I mean occasionally you’ll see people in big trucks running around with Confederate flags. I saw a guy that had a Confederate hoodie, but do I feel personally threatened by that. No, I just see it and just kind of go like I saw that in Florida, too. It is what it is.
IN:Have you noticed any differences in people’s treatment of you since Donald Trump has been in office?
AM:Me? No.
IN:What do you feel you have contributed to your department at UI?
AM:I took the Pre-Law program that was pretty much moribund and I made that into something that now, I mean, there is a Pre-Law Society that didn't exist before. I got it started. I feel like the advising, I've tried to create a robust advising infrastructure. I've tried to publicize and bring a lot more events related to learning about legal careers and learning about the law and so on and so forth to this community. I feel like that’s an accomplishment. Also, in terms of outreach, I gave a series of bar lectures this year one in Boise, one in Pocatello, one here. I feel like that’s part of my contribution to the outreach.
I also talk with civic groups. I just did an interview with a high school group in southern Idaho where we talked about the Constitution and the law. I'm really passionate about teaching people about civics and America’s institutions and the law because there’s a lot of ignorance about that. I feel like one of the things I'm really passionate about is bringing that to a wider audience. I've tried to be a good representative of the University in that respect and I feel like I've contributed to outreach by doing that. Those are some of the things that I'm particularly proud of.
IN:How long have you been at the University?
AM:I came here in 2013, my first 3 years as a visitor. I’ve been in one status and then another and this is going on year 6.
IN:Do you bring anything different to the table?
AM:One of the things I bring to the table is that I have a JD and a PhD. I bring the perspectives of both the legal profession and political science. They have traditionally been separate, but I have always saw the wall as something very permeable and that the two mesh and that they’re intimately related. I feel like a lot of my work straddles the gap between the two and sort of brings them together. There’s that. I don't know how far you want me to go with that. I’m not contrasting myself with any colleagues because I don't know what other people do. I try to create a learning environment, in my classes, that’s more focused on skill development, than on memorization.
I like to get people talking and I really like to bring new perspectives to students, maybe things that they haven’t heard of before. But always in an environment of openness in the sense that I go out of my way in my syllabus and my classes to tell people that there are no opinions that are out of bounds and nobody should ever be afraid to have what they currently think challenged because otherwise what are you doing here. If you already know everything, then why do you need to go to university. The only thing I demand is that people are respectful to each other. Ideas are fair game, but you shouldn’t be–Sydney, this is for you– throwing shade on someone. I try to really cultivate that.
Sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like students don't want to talk. Especially what I teach. I teach civil liberties. I sometimes wonder when we talk about things like affirmative action and segregation and things like that do people not want to say anything because there’s an African-American man who’s their teacher. I sometimes wonder about that, like I throw things out there and I hear crickets chirp. And I'm like well okay fine, I'll give both points of view. Sometimes I wonder about that, but I don't consider that racism on part of the students.
I consider that potential awkwardness. But that can happen when female professors talk about gender discrimination or sexual assault. It can happen for a lot of different reasons. I just wonder if that happens in my class, but I’m not criticizing anyone. I’m just trying to find ways to break down barriers to communication and learning so that students don’t feel like they ever have to not speak their minds or ask questions. No one has ever told me that, I just kind of wonder. I’m always trying to find ways to improve in that regard.
IN:Is there anything I should have asked you?
AM:No, except to say that in some sense I think that my presence on the faculty here might be a little bit more beneficial to students perhaps than at other universities that i've been at. I don’t for a lot of my students, I mean just given the demographics in the state of Idaho, some of them I suppose might never have had a person of color for a teacher. And to the extent that I am an opportunity for them to have experience with diverse people. That’s a good thing.
- Title:
- Aman McLeod
- Type:
- text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Preferred Citation:
- "Aman McLeod", Black History at the University of Idaho, Black History Research Lab, University of Idaho
- Reference Link:
- https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/blackhistory/items/aman_mcleod.html
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