Oral History Interview: Marjorie Harris (1330)

Abstract

In her April 2013 interview with Crawford Young, Marjorie Harris retraced her footsteps from childhood in Denver, to the University of Chicago during World War II, then after marriage to Madison, where her husband Chester Harris was a faculty member in the College of Education. In the early 1960s, a social friend urged her to consider an administrative position in his program; Philip Curtin, another friend, intercepted her and recruited her to a post of administrative assistant in the newly created African Studies Program. She knew little about Africa at the time, but in her quarter century with the Program she became attached to the continent, finally having an opportunity to visit late in her career. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the African Studies project of the UW-Madison Oral History Program.