Launched in 2014, Committee of 100’s Next Generation Leaders (NGL) program convenes an exceptional group of change-makers and rising leaders from diverse sectors, leveraging a collective sense of service and purpose to elevate the impact of each individual. With the most recent class announced in April 2024, there are more than 200 NGLs across a multitude of sectors who make up a vibrant and diverse community.
Recently, for our ongoing monthly Q&A series, we sat down with one of our fantastic NGLs and asked them about their career, what the past few years has been like, and their hopes for the future. This month, we had the honor of speaking with Dr. Keisha A. Brown.
Keisha is an associate professor of history at Tennessee State University (TSU) in the Department of History, Political Science, Geography, and Africana Studies. She is also the co-founder and co-CEO of the Black China Caucus (BCC), a non-profit co-founded in 2020 aimed at amplifying Black voices in the China space; co-editor of Siyabonana: The Journal of Africana Studies; current board member for ASIANetwork; and a mentor for the American Mandarin Society African-American China Leadership Fellows Program.
Keisha joined the faculty at TSU in 2015 after receiving her BA from the University of Notre Dame, earning her doctorate from the University of Southern California, and serving as a 2018–2019 postdoctoral fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for the Study of Race and Difference at Emory University. She was in cohort VI of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations Public Intellectuals Program. Keisha is a historian of modern China, with allied interests in race and ethnic studies and postcolonial theory in modern East Asia. Specifically, she is interested in modern understandings of what she has termed Sino-Black relations. Her research into Sino-Black relations examines networks of difference in China used to understand the “Black foreign other” through an investigation of the social and political context that African Americans and others in the Black diaspora navigate and negotiate in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as evidenced in her article “Blackness in Exile: W.E.B. Du Bois’ Role in the Formation of Representations of Blackness as Conceptualized by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)” and other related scholarship.
Connect with Keisha on LinkedIn.
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Committee of 100: What inspired you to work in your professional field?
Keisha: As a sophomore in high school, I had the opportunity to take Mandarin Chinese classes. Mind you, this was back in the early 2000s, and I attended a predominately Black public high school in Georgia, so this was a shock to my parents. But I enjoyed the class, and through my then teacher, Gao Laoshi (高 老师), I spent a week in Beijing at a root-seeking summer camp as a special guest. Being able to visit historic sites like the Great Wall and to experience Chinese culture firsthand sold me. I’ve studied Chinese ever since. Although I knew I wanted to continue using my language skills, I wanted to avoid being in education, as I come from a family of educators. However, my dreams of being a biochemist did not pan out, haha! But after participating in the Ronald E. McNair Research Scholars the summer before my senior year of college, I realized that I had found my niche in the realm of research and scholarship.
Committee of 100: What are some of the challenges you have encountered to become a leader in your respective field? Are Chinese Americans well-represented in your field, and what do you think are the reasons they are/aren’t well-represented?
Keisha: As a Black woman in higher education, specifically in the field of Asian Studies, I had some unique challenges. One of the first was fighting to conduct my research, proving that it was not only interesting, but relevant. Second, I had to get comfortable being the only Black individual in a space, affirming that whatever room I am in is where I am supposed to be. There’s beauty in being different. A third was knowing that there is value in my unique perspective and experiences.
In academia, there are two tracks, Asian Studies and Asian American (now AAPI at some institutions) Studies, which have traditionally separated pedagogically. In recent years, as there has been a greater push to find pedagogical links between these two areas of study, there has been greater representation of Chinese Americans in Asian Studies.
Committee of 100: What do you believe needs to be done so that more Chinese Americans feel empowered to follow and achieve their dreams?
Keisha: Speaking as an ally, I think one way to empower more Chinese Americans to feel empowered to follow their dreams is to show the diversity within the Chinese American community, further debunking the model minority myth while simultaneously, ideally, building new bridges and allyships with other communities.
Committee of 100: If applicable, how can your NGL community support you and your work? Do you have any recent or upcoming projects you’d like to highlight?
Keisha: The NGL community can support the work of the Black China Caucus, my non-profit. I have some projects forthcoming that I will share once they are accessible.
Committee of 100: For those who just recently graduated college or are early in their careers, what advice would you give to them?
Keisha: The advice I would give to recent college graduates or early career professionals is two-fold. One, build a network of mentors or trusted individuals whom you can rely on for honest advice and support. Two, never stop learning because once you do, you stop growing and evolving.
