Donald Carter
Donald Martin Carter is Professor of Africana Studies and Anthropology. He currently serves as Chief Diversity Officer of the college. As a first generation college student, he grew up in a Black working class community in Oakland, California. His parents moved from Louisiana to California just prior to the Second World War, establishing a base for other family members and friends to move North in the extended great migration. The world that they and other migrants created in the North retained a distinctively Southern flavor infusing sociocultural life, music and art. The "West Coast" influence on Black Popular Culture has been significant from the fusion of African American musical practices with traditional Chinese music producing a distinctive form of Jazz, to the birth of progressive Black grass roots labor activism that has informed the national Black freedom movement. A beneficiary of federal programs supporting the poor and ensuring the participation of women and racial and ethnic minorities in higher education, he attended The University Of California at Santa Cruz as an undergraduate, and later The University of Chicago for graduate work in Anthropology. He is author of States of Grace: Senegalese in Italy and the New European Immigration (1997) and Navigating the African Diaspora: The Anthropology of Invisibility (2010).
Amit Taneja
Amit was born and raised in India, and his family moved to Canada in 1994. He earned his B.A. in Psychology at the University of British Columbia, and after graduating he worked at his alma mater as an Advisor at the Disability Resource Center. He holds a Master's Degree in College Student Personnel from Bowling Green State University where he served as a Graduate Hall Director. He is currently working on his doctorate in Higher Education at Syracuse University. His dissertation focuses on the intersection of race, class, gender and sexual orientation for LGBT students of color on college campuses.
Amit has previously served as the Associate Director of the LGBT Resource Center at Syracuse University (2005-2011), and as a Residence Director (2003-2005). Amit has taught academic courses in Sociology, Women’s Studies, First Year Forum, and the Summer Start program at Syracuse University. He has facilitated numerous CARE dialogues (Conversations About Race & Ethnicity), and co-developed and facilitated a curriculum for a Gender Dialogue for professional staff members in Residence Life. He served on Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals executive board for five years, serving as co-chair from 2007-2010. He serves as a consultant and speaker on a range of diversity issues, and he has presented at many different colleges including Cornell University, Princeton University, Oberlin College, Ithaca College, and the University of South Florida.
He is fluent in English, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu, and his hobbies include DJing, cooking, home repairs, running and flying kites. Amit can be reached at ataneja@hamilton.edu or 315-859-4252.
Janet Turvey
Janet moved to the USA from the U.K. in 1985 and started working at Hamilton College in 1994. She has held other positions on campus, one year in the English Department and 10 years in the Admission Office. The reason she enjoys working in the Days-Massolo Center is the busy and varied work load, the students, and the programs that are held here.
Sabrina Debrosse is a sophomore at Hamilton College with a major in Communications and a possible French minor. She is from Miami, FL and is also a part of Hamilton’s very first posse from Miami. She attended a visual and performing arts school for 9 years of her life, and enjoys sculpting ceramics. She likes to be around people and enjoys living life fully passionate, engaged, and is always motivated to do better. She centers her world around building a strong sense of community with the people around her from family to friends. Sabrina can be reached at sdebross@hamilton.edu.
Nanyamka-Keyanè Fleming is a sophomore at Hamilton College with a major in Africana Studies and a minor in Art. Before coming to Hamilton, she attended the Cambridge School of Weston, a boarding and day high school in Massachusetts that closely deals with diversity and liberal arts. She lives in southern Maryland and is part of Hamilton’s Scholars program. She is a member of the Black Latino Student Union, the Feminists of Color Collective, as well as on the executive board of the Voices of Color Lecture Series. She plans on going to law school and studying Critical Race Theory through a law perspective. She enjoys drawing, painting, and learning about new cultures by participating in activities involving diversity. Nanyamka can be reached at nfleming@hamilton.edu.
Harsimran (Sim) Janjua is a sophomore at Hamilton College who is possibly majoring in Psychology. She is from New York City, NY and is a member of several groups on campus such as BLSU, Rainbow Alliance, and SASA. She enjoys working closely with people, having been a host for prospective students since last year, and so has high hopes in a career in doing exactly that. She enjoys blogging, listening to music, and helping all types of creatures. She is currently a Residential Advisor, is a part of HEOP, and has grand plans for the rest of her years at Hamilton. Sim can be reached at hjanjua@hamilton.edu.
Austin Walker is a senior at Hamilton College and graduate of the White Mountain School in New Hampshire. He is majoring in International Development and Social Justice with a focus on East Africa. His area of study has allowed him to draw courses from the African Studies, Government, Economics, Women’s Studies and Environmental Studies departments. His keen interest in East Africa has allowed him to spend nearly nine months in Kenya and Tanzania over the past two years where he has worked closely with rural youth in an effort to highlight their voices in the realm of development academia and the non-profit sector. In doing so he has worked closely with the Hamilton College Levitt center and the Lwala Community Alliance. He has also remained engaged at Hamilton as a Residential Advisor, Levitt Scholar and tutor at Kernan Elementary School in Utica. Austin can be reached at awalker@hamilton.edu
Austin was recently awarded a Fullbright Grant to study youth in Kenya. For more information, please click here
