Vandy Faces: Smith McKoy leaves legacy
Allison Oubre
Culture Associate Editor
"I feel that my greatest legacies are my students. I believe that I have made Vanderbilt a better place by engaging my students about issues relating to race, gender and difference in ways that had not happened prior to my coming here," said Smith McKoy.
She is leaving to accept a position at her alma mater, North Carolina State University. There she will have the chance to participate in study abroad and exchange programs in Ghana and Nigeria. She feels that this change comes at an exciting time, as her son is about to embark on his own college experience.
About returning, Smith McKoy said, "I am pleased to have the opportunity to go back to teach in a place at which I was well-mentored and given the opportunity to think about graduate study for the first time. It was an opportunity that I was not expecting, but it is an honor to be affirmed in this manner."
Smith McKoy became a professor because of her attraction to what she calls the "life of the mind."
Being a professor has also afforded Smith McKoy the chance to work and raise a family. "I am also a single parent, and my work has given me the opportunity to spend quality time with my son, unlike most full-time professional women," said Smith McKoy.
After graduating from N.C. State, Smith McKoy received her M.A. from North Carolina and went on to receive a Ph.D. from Duke in 1994.
She teaches two classes this semester, African American Literature and Anglophone African Literature.
In addition to her undergraduate courses, Smith McKoy is dedicated to promoting cultural diversity and awareness through several different mediums. She is currently working on a documentary of the Nashville riots of 1967 and 1968, an anthology on black literature of the 1930s and a book about time in African and African Diaspora cultures.
In 2001, Smith McKoy's book When Whites Riot: Writing Race and Violence in America and South African Culture was published by the University of Wisconsin Press. The book explores the way public attention gets diverted from white violence by analyzing the role of skin color in some of the two countries' most violent moments.
Smith McKoy's list of favorite authors, from various literary traditions, includes writers such as J.J. Phillips, Chinua Achebe, Mariama Ba, Bessie Head, Robert Jordan and Toni Morrison. She embraces the opportunity to expose her students to cultures and ideas that are different from their own, yet she acknowledges the dual nature of her position.
She commented that the teaching profession has allowed her to introduce students both to other cultures and to their own in an atmosphere in which she can learn as well. Her career has also enabled her to travel and complete research in other countries.
"I also believe that there are students from a variety of backgrounds who have touched my life here and whose lives I hope that I have bettered," she said.
Smith McKoy's genuine concern for her students and involvement in bettering their lives and those around them has made her a mentor for many black students at Vanderbilt.
"My best advice to my black students is to remember that there is a difference between diversity and assimilation, that it is their right to be as black as they want to be without apologizing for it and that one of the privileges of being black in an environment like Vanderbilt is that you can literally change the world for people whose lives you touch," said Smith McKoy.
As she leaves the Vanderbilt environment, she humbly said that it has been a privilege to open a different cultural door for students. She admitted that fundamentally, Vanderbilt has changed very little since her arrival in 1994.
However, she stated, "Under the Gee administration, I believe we now have the opportunity to achieve many of the improvements that faculty members have hoped to see, especially in the areas of faculty diversity and in retention and recruitment of students of color."
She hopes that her students will keep in touch with her as she moves on to her next challenges.
"For students in general, I would ask them to remember that the more they can educate themselves beyond the classroom, the better the world will be. I have a wall of my office that is dedicated to notes and cards from my students; I hope to add many more from my years at Vanderbilt."