AN INTERVIEW WITH ALUM TAHLIA BRAGG, PHD, THE INAUGURAL PRESIDENT OF THE BLACK STUDENT ASSOCIATION

When Dr. Tahlia Bragg started her doctoral journey at Fielding, little did she know that she would become the inaugural president of the Black Student Association — the first university-wide, student-led group.

The Black Student Association grew out of an African American student affinity group in the School of Psychology in 2016. In July of that year, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile were brutally murdered by the police. The tragedy coincided with Fielding’s Session in Chicago, Ill. Many Black students wanted to participate in the protests against police brutality in downtown Chicago but were discouraged by the Fielding administration due to safety concerns. As a result, the students came together on the sidelines of the Session to process the violence against African American people and create a supportive community.

As a new student in the program and someone with organizational management experience, Dr. Bragg was nominated to become the president of the then African American Student Association in 2017. In 2019, because of the initiative by a Black student from the Caribbean, the African American Student Association became Black Student Association (BSA), a more inclusive space for all students who identify as direct descendants of the African diaspora.

“There is a question of why we use the word ‘student’ and not ‘students.’ My hope is that everyone who comes and joins our Association feels like they are getting an experience unique to them as an individual. And yet, we operate as a collective,” Dr. Bragg said. “The success of the Black Student Association is a result of the brilliance current active members demonstrate. Black students often have similar experiences in the Ivory Tower that academia still exists today.”

A trailblazer and organizer, she received outstanding recognition, in collaboration with her peers and one of BSA’s advisors, Konjit Page, PhD: winning the American Psychological Association’s 2022 Stuart C. Tentoni Outstanding Professional Development Program Award.

This award and the 2022 APA Conference presentation, "@#%$ Your Sorry: Black Womxns’ Reflection on the APA’s Formal Apology," were meaningful to Dr. Bragg on multiple levels.

“The award is confirmation of the importance of celebrating Black authenticity — as a Black woman, I use curse words to emphasize my point,” she said. “I don’t think that I could have expressed the message that I wanted to if I couldn’t speak authentically, where I felt secure in my Blackness and in my womanhood. The award is an important message to Black people and People of Color that you need to say and stand on what you genuinely mean. Don’t let academia tell you what to say.”

In 2023, several months after she graduated from Fielding, Dr. Bragg received an appointment to the new Affiliate cohort of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, founded by Dr. Ibrahim X. Kendi. Her current research focuses on deconstructing race as a variable. Aside from aspiring to become a subject-matter expert in researching racial disparities in Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease-related dementias with an emphasis on chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), Dr. Bragg shared that her goal is to “relay my work back to help my community find equity and greater accessibility in mental health and medical settings.”

When not researching, Dr. Bragg is still involved with Fielding and is now working to establish a Black Alumni Association at our university.