As history professor Kathleen Brown steps into her new role as chair of the Faculty Senate, she described it as an opportunity to revitalize shared governance at Penn in an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian.<\/p>\n
Brown, who teaches the history of gender and race in early America, will serve as chair for the 2025-26 academic year. She characterized her role as an opportunity to \u201creinvigorate the democratic process\u201d at Penn, an institution she said is \u201ccoming out of terrible crisis\u201d and faces a \u201cvery tense political moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown \u2014\u00a0who is approaching 30 years at Penn \u2014 sees herself as \u201ca historian who is endlessly curious about how history allows us to believe that what we are told is natural in the world.\u201d That curiosity, she said, has driven both personal discovery and professional growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in a moment where so much is being upended,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the suspension of due process and questions about how much of a touchstone the Constitution is for what\u2019s legal and what\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s vision for the Faculty Senate involves helping her peers understand \u201cwhat\u2019s at stake for all the other faculty members on this campus, because we are a very diverse group in terms of our vulnerabilities, our strengths and supports, [and] our privileges.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the process isn\u2019t transparent and people don’t feel like they can engage it fruitfully, then they go away,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Brown also highlighted the need for new ways of thinking at a moment of \u201ccrisis\u201d on Penn\u2019s campus, pointing to the loss of funding<\/a> for \u201csalaries, research projects, [and] important work\u201d across the University.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s serious jeopardy all over the University, and people are \u2026 not being over dramatic and hyperbolic,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Penn is currently the subject of multiple federal investigations, including a probe into the University\u2019s foreign donation disclosures<\/a>, allegations of price-fixing<\/a>, and a set of demands<\/a> issued by the Department of Education after finding that Penn violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete in women\u2019s intercollegiate athletics.<\/p>\n The University is also facing continued pressures from 1968 Wharton graduate and President Donald Trump, who has implemented restrictions on institutional students<\/a>, cut federal research funding<\/a>, and worked to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion<\/a> initiatives across college campuses.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry that I\u2019ve lived long enough to see what\u2019s happening at the moment in higher education,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut I sort of feel well prepared by my life experience and my teaching experience and my administrative experience to step up into a leadership role.\u201d<\/p>\n Before assuming her position as chair-elect in 2024 Brown visited the University\u2019s archives to research the history of the Faculty Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I learned was that it actually has a really vigorous and interesting history of deep engagement and deep influence on campus,\u201d Brown said, specifically referencing the numerous elections that occurred \u201cin order to bring about the constituencies of the tri-chairs\u201d and the members of the Senate Executive Committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n While acknowledging that the historical function of the Faculty Senate \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s necessarily the right mode for shared governance right now,\u201d Brown emphasized that \u201cknowing the path you\u2019ve been on to get where you are is illuminating.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown told the DP that she admires former Faculty Senate Chair and University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School professor Eric Feldman\u2019s \u201chard work\u201d during his \u201cvery turbulent year\u201d as chair. However, she also expressed her desire to bring a new vision to the role \u2014 including ways to \u201clearn more about what shared governance can mean and what it should look like\u201d within the Faculty Senate.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m interested personally in learning more about how shared governance works in other places, more about the history of how it has worked here, how it came about here, and how it worked here \u2014 and just thinking about \u2026 how to hang on to it in a way that’s going to serve all interests on campus,” Brown added.<\/p>\n In her letter of introduction \u2014 published May 27 \u2014 Brown outlined her plan for investigating the Faculty Senate\u2019s shared governance, including \u201cdiscussing how best to democratize all processes and procedures for selection to SEC, Faculty Senate committees, and the tri-chairs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt will mean reviewing exactly how we communicate with constituencies and how they communicate with us,\u201d Brown wrote in the letter. \u201cThis might also mean considering whether we should have elections for SEC and the tri-chairs as was past practice at Penn. Even if we reject the option of elections, a thorough review of our democratic practice will serve to make us stronger by making us more intentional in our practices and commitment to our governance structure.\u201d<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s academic journey began during her undergraduate studies at Wesleyan University before she received a master\u2019s degree and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.\u00a0<\/p>\n While a graduate student at Wisconsin, Brown also served as a teaching assistant. Before coming to Penn in 1995 as a visiting professor, Brown taught at a high school in Virginia.<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s interest in the \u201cwork [that] goes into making things look natural\u201d has informed almost everything she has written, including her most recent book, \u201cUndoing Slavery: Abolitionist Body Politics and the Argument over Humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n This also led to the formation of the Penn & Slavery Project<\/a>, a student-driven archival endeavor that researches the University\u2019s historical ties to slavery and the slave trade. Brown has guided the project since its creation in 2017.<\/p>\n She called the project \u201cthe biggest highlight of [her] time at Penn,\u201d noting its role in \u201ctransform[ing] the career paths\u201d of many original members. From augmented reality tours of the legacy of Penn\u2019s slavery to in-depth examinations of the University\u2019s financial records, the project \u2014 whose website is currently undergoing updates, according to Brown \u2014 has continued to grow each year.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are kind of amazed by it, especially when they realize undergraduates did the research and undergraduates really imagined and designed the whole thing,\u201d Brown told<\/a> the DP of the project in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n From 2017 to 2020, Brown served as the director of Penn\u2019s Gender, Sexuality, and Women\u2019s Studies program \u2014\u00a0a tenure she described as \u201can energetic effort to get professors of practice affiliated and to renew the enthusiasm\u201d of the program.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of that got taken apart very quickly in the spring of 2020, so it was very disappointing \u2026 in that it felt very transient at that moment,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut some of it has persisted thanks to the effort of subsequent directors.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown has similarly guided the Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing as faculty director through a period of transition. She noted the program\u2019s \u201cchanging landscape,\u201d including a piloting process for new courses.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no question that it\u2019s entering the second chapter of its existence,\u201d Brown said in reference to a DP survey that found growing criticisms of Penn\u2019s Critical Writing Seminar<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Brown also serves as the interim director of the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, a program she classified as \u201cunique nationally and internationally\u201d because of its focus on the \u201cwork\u201d and \u201cdiscipline\u201d for Ph.D. students.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n