Irma McClaurin, PhD, D.SS (h.c), MFA, is a woman of many talents whose brand mantra is: “Change hearts, change minds, change behaviors, change policies & procedures to achieve transformation.”
She has been dubbed an “academic entrepreneur” and told she has “the power of presence” as a motivational speaker and leadership coach.
McClaurin’s academic background is interdisciplinary and straddles the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. She holds the Masters of Fine Arts in English at the University of Massachusetts Amherst—a terminal degree in the creative arts, and has published three books of poetry with her poems appearing in over 16 magazines and anthologies, and translated into Swedish and Spanish. Nine years after finishing the MFA, she enrolled in the MA and PhD programs in Anthropology at UMass Amherst, while working there full time as an Assistant Dean and without ever having taken an anthropology course. l As they say, the rest is history. Today, Dr. Irma is a noted and celebrated Black feminist and activist anthropologist, award-winning academic and published writer and poet, and Zora Neal Hurston scholar. She is the Editor of the canon-forming collection Black Feminist Anthropology: Theory, Politics, Praxis, and Poetics, named a 2002 “Outstanding Academic Title” by Choice Magazine and in November will have a 25th Anniversary Edition released by Rutgers University Press (30% discount code RUP30 includes free shipping). Her ethnography Women of Belize: Gender and Change in Central America (1996) is still in print and was the second book written about women in Belize and the first to center their voices.
A proven visionary, in 2016 she established her legacy by founding the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive (BFA) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The BFA is dedicated “to building an archival home” for Black women, gender-fluid people, other Women of Color, and their allies. The BFA’s primary goal is to preserve the activist, artistic, and scholarly contributions Black women and others who identify as femme have made in multiple arenas locally, nationally, and globally.The BFA is now endowed and will be highlighted by the UMass Amherst Libraries at its annual event on Oct 19, 2024 in Amherst, MA. In addition to her paper, currently 397 photographs of family, friends, and iconic Black figures such as James Baldwin, Sonia Sanchez, Toni Cade Bambara, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, and Maya Angelou, to name a few, are digitized in the UMass platform CREDO. McClaurin has raised $30k for the archive and pledged funds to establish the Endowment. She hopes others will support her vision.
Dr. Irma also is a public writer and has served as Culture and Education Editor for Insight News for over a decade; she has published 130+ columns, and in 2015 the Black Press of America selected her as “Best in the Nation Columnist.” She acts as a commentator and occasional cohost on “The Conversation With Al McFarlane livestream on YouTube (InsightNewsMN & Black Press USA),” and is a Ms. Magazine author and has her own column in Medium. In the past she was Editor of Transforming Anthropology: The Journal of the Association of Black Anthropologists for seven years and has served on numerous journal editorial boards.
Dr. Irma has created her own opportunities and worked in the varied sectors of higher education, philanthropy, the federal government, and is a certified minority consulting and coaching business owner.
Significant transformational leadership positions include past president of Shaw University, Ford Foundation Program Officer, Deputy Provost at Fisk University, Bennett College Mott Distinguished Chair of Women’s Studies and founder of the Africana Women’s Studies Program, Associate Vice President at the University of Minnesota and founding executive director of the first Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC), which involved the renovation of a 21,000 sf derelict shopping center into a thriving research center based in Minneapolis Northside Black community. It is now 15 years old. She was the first Chief Diversity Officer at Teach For America and established the first national DEI office and team. McClaurin has held tenured positions in anthropology at the University of Florida and University of Minnesota. Awards and recognition include a 2023 Grinnell College honorary doctorate and Alumni Award, 2023 Ira A. Harrison Leadership Award from the Association of Black Anthropologists 2022 AAA Engaged Anthropology Award, 2017 NWSA Award for Vision and Leadership, 2016 UMass Amherst Distinguished Alumna Award, and many others. She is currently CEO of Irma McClaurin Solutions, a consulting and coaching business.
Dr. Irma considers herself a global citizen who loves to travel (#blackfeministtraveler), take photographs, write poetry and hangout with friends and family. She is the mother of Zena Carlota Allen, an artist, musician and therapist and Antonio Maceo Allen, who works in IT and mixes beats and raps. Beyond recruiting contributors and donors for the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archive, she is working on two children’s books and two collections of essays: JustSpeak: Reflections on Race, Culture & Politics in America and Confessions of a Barstool DiVAH. She has a manuscript, Lifting Zora Neale Hurston from the Shadow of Anthropology, in progress.