Duchess Harris, PhD is a tenured associate professor of American Studies at Macalester College.

She is the author of "Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton" and co-editor with Bruce D. Baum of "Racially Writing the Republic: Racists, Race Rebels, and Transformations of American Identity."

She has a blog, Sister Scholar: a weekly account of an academic, law student, wife, and mother of three. Harris was also the July 2009 "How She Does It" Woman in ESSENCE Magazine. Harris is a 2009 recipient of the Bush Foundation Leadership Fellowship. She is using her fellowship to take an 18 month leave of absence from Macalester to complete a law degree at William Mitchell College of Law.

She plans on continuing her career in higher education once she earns her J.D. Harris lives with her husband Jon V. Thomas, MD, MBA and their three children; the oldest of whom thrives with autism.