Da’Von received a Beinecke Scholarship in 2016 at Morehouse College to pursue a Ph.D. in Political Science and African American Studies at Yale University. He completed his degree in 2024 and is now an Assistant Professor of Government and Africana Studies at William & Mary. Before joining William & Mary, Da’Von served as a Gaius Charles Bolin fellow in the Department of Political Science at Williams College.
Since I was a child, I always knew that I wanted to be an educator. However, I quickly learned in high school that I probably didn’t have the disposition to be an effective teacher in secondary education. Consequently, I decided to become a college professor. I was always interested in politics, and I knew I would need a doctorate; however, I didn’t know how to achieve a Ph.D. in politics. No one in my immediate family had even remotely considered earning a doctorate.
At Morehouse College, I began to learn the hidden curriculum of academia. I took classes with faculty such as Dr. Andrew Douglas, who encouraged me to pursue an academic career and supported my incipient research interests with critical feedback. Soon, I became a UNCF Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. This fellowship challenged my parochial understanding of the professorate by emphasizing the importance of academic research, teaching, and service to the university and community, and affirming the significance of the representation of minoritized communities in academia. Yet, despite these remarkable experiences, graduate study, specifically, and the professorate, broadly, still felt abstract.
I applied for the Beinecke Scholarship at the behest of one of my professors, Dr. Leah Creque, and of a Beinecke Scholar who previously won the award, Rami Blair. While I felt confident in my academic record, I understood that it was a prestigious and highly competitive scholarship and that I was less likely to receive it. To my sheer jubilation and utter surprise, I learned that I won the scholarship while walking on campus with my Debate coach, whose roommate at Morehouse was the college’s first student to win the award in the 1990s. It was at that moment that the professorate felt tangible and attainable. I discerned the Sperry Fund’s decision to select me as recognition of my academic talents and potential, and as an investment in my future. With the support of the scholarship, I knew I had a material safety net that could help me pursue my aspirations to matriculate at a prestigious graduate school and realize the unspoken dreams of my fore-parents. I could become the first doctor in my family.
I eventually attended Yale University to pursue a Ph.D. in Political Science and African American Studies. At Yale, the Beinecke Scholarship enhanced my quality of life and supported my research, which offers a rich and new theoretical and historical account of Black political theology in the long civil rights movement, in diverse ways, from visiting archives to conduct research to attending and presenting at conferences. Moreover, I had an opportunity to reinvest in the program when I was invited to discuss my graduate school experiences in a virtual forum with Beinecke Scholars during the pandemic.
Amazingly, I am now an Assistant Professor of Government and Africana Studies at William & Mary. I would not have achieved the academic and professional successes I have without the support of the Beinecke Scholarship and the philanthropy of organizations such as The Sperry Fund. I am eternally grateful for the scholarship’s support and hope to reciprocate its generosity by teaching and mentoring the next generation of scholars.