In May, political science professor Julie Dolan and American studies professor Duchess Harris led fourteen students on a trip to Northern Ireland as the culmination of their crosslisted short-term study away course, Gender and Transnational Politics: A Comparison of Northern Ireland and the Southern United States. The group visited Dublin, Belfast, and Londonderry to explore the civil rights struggle in the United Kingdom and its striking parallels to the civil rights movemen

Nonfiction books are increasingly being banned in public schools, according to a new PEN America report. The organization found that 3,743 unique titles were removed from school libraries during the 2024–2025 school year. Of those, 29% were nonfiction titles, up from 14% the year before. Male Privilege (Being Female in America) by Duchess Harris and Heidi Deal, and Growing Up LGBTQ by Duchess Harris and Rebecca Rowell, were cited as examples. >> Read the story now!

Photo by Creator:Lorie Shaull - Flickr, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=182355054 MPR News host Angela Davis and guests that included Duchess Harris talked about the Trump administration’s announcement that it is ending what it calls “Operation Metro Surge,” which sent thousands of federal immigration officers to Minnesota. >> Listen now!

Macalester College recently hosted Gerald Horne as the Mahmoud El-Kati Distinguished Lectureship in American Studies in the Alexander G. Hill Ballroom. Duchess was pleased to welcome and introduce Dr. Horne, a renowned historian and author, Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and one of the nation’s leading scholars on race, class, and global power. >> Watch now!

In this latest interview with Al Jazeera, Duchess Harris weighs in on the efficacy of the Minneapolis protests, the historical and legal context, and whether Tom Homan is just a different face for a similar strategy or if he'll be able to deliver his stated goal of delivering law and order. >> Watch now!

In this appearance on Al Jazeera, Duchess debates Chet Love, a Republican strategist based in Washington D.C., about the events leading up to Alex Pretti's shooting at the hands of federal agents. While Love describes Pretti as resisting arrest which was the primary factor, Harris points out that he had every right to protest and record what was happening. >> Watch now

In the wake of the shooting by federal agents of Alex Pretti, Duchess Harris explains why people in Minneapolis don't feel safe but are still determined to protest. She also goes into depth about U.S. rights and how they've been under siege during these past few weeks, and the impact it's having on the ground in the community. >> Watch the interview now!

For Al Jazeera, Harris weighs in on the recent shooting in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents that resulted in the death of Alex Pretti, the resulting protests and largest strike Minnesota has seen in 70 years, and the impact of the ICE shooting of Renee Good on the entire community. >> Watch now!

In this opinion piece for The Minnesota Star Tribune , Duchess writes that decades ago, the National Guard was called in to help desegregate schools in Arkansas. It could be used again today to stabilize schools amid fears about ICE enforcement. "As we approach Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I return to the question King posed near the end of his life. “Where do we go from here?” Perhaps the first step is an honest reckoning — recognizing that we have been here before, and that

Reconstruction Destructed , sixth in the “Juneteenth Reckoning with Slavery” film series, aims to shine a light on the most misunderstood...