Dr. Vincent Intondi not only propels meaningful discussion in the classroom, but he also creates space on campus for thoughtful conversation and solidarity.
During the four years that he taught at Seminole State College of Florida, news broke in nearby Sanford about the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Intondi immediately knew that this event would forever be part of the African-American history he teaches. The activism that arose out of the tragedy abundantly demonstrated the connection between what students learn in the classroom and what goes on in the world.
He thrived on teaching the diverse range of students at Seminole, and he took to heart the issues of undocumented students that made up a significant percentage of the student body. When he accepted his current position at Maryland’s Montgomery College’s Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus in 2013, he again found an extremely diverse student body and an interesting disconnect among African-American students and students from Africa.
He says that stereotypes exist on both sides. He recently received a grant through the Global Humanities Institute at Montgomery College to redo his African-American History Since 1865 course.
He wants students to “realize how they’re all connected through the lens of colonialism,” explains Intondi, who is the author of the book African Americans Against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism and the Black Freedom Movement. “Students this semester are choosing artists, poets, musicians from two periods (of three): the Harlem Renaissance, the Black arts movement in the ’60s and the golden era of hip-hop1980–1992. They’re going to compare and contrast those artists, looking for influences and themes of Africa throughout.
“It’s been a really rewarding experience to see students who have never heard of groups like Public Enemy or realized there were people wearing African medallions in the 1980s then see the influences of somebody like Nikki Giovanni or Sonia Sanchez,” Itondi says. “They’re starting to realize how those connections have been there right along.”
Writing is an important part of his academic mission for all students in his African-American history, U.S. history and social history courses. He finds that many students have not been taught how to write at the college level, whether it’s term papers or essay exams. He not only assigns research papers but also teaches his students how to engage in scholarly writing, including how to do footnotes.
