‘A beautiful human’ JMU community remembers life and impact of Tatiana Benjamin

from BENJAMIN, page 1

“We just talked about everything — about family, about love, about school,” Perez said. “And to this moment, it remains my favorite memory with her because there was just so much peace around us. There weren’t any distractions of deadlines or cell phones or anything that we had to do in that moment. We were just sitting there under the big tree, just listening to each other with so much care.”

Perez said she misses Benjamin’s “infectious and full laughter” the most — the type of laugh where you have to grab your knees or lean back — and her greeting of “hello, beautiful humans” that she gave to everyone she talked to.

During Benjamin’s residency in the justice studies department, Perez said she had a major impact on the students, faculty and curriculum.

She offered a “very critical analysis to the study of justice through her use of black feminism to interrogate the legacy of racism in the United States,” Perez said.

She said she learned a lot from Benjamin, who would take any opportunity to clarify and teach about inequalities in society within any conversation she was having. The two would also have daily chats in each other’s offices to share new ideas, talk about work and offer advice.

“She’s really missed,” Perez said. “It was hard for me to return to the building knowing that my friend was gone. The start of [this semester] was really challenging.”

The moment this semester that really hit Perez, though, was during the department’s first faculty meeting back in January. Perez said she and Benjamin would always sit next to each other during these meetings and would look at each other, communicating through the look in their eyes or laughing at each other, much like you would with a friend in class.

“[The department] got together in the same room that she and I had our first faculty meeting in the department,” Perez said. “But this time around, the seat next to me was empty and that’s when it really hit me, to not have my friend with me here in the department.”

Peggy Plass, professor and academic unit head of the justice studies department, said Benjamin was a “beautiful human” and agreed with Perez: one of her favorite things about Benjamin was how she began all her classes with “hello, beautiful humans.”

“It was just very typical of who she was,” Plass said. “She was very caring for everyone, but especially for her students.”

Plass said Benjamin was a “real joy to be around” and an “extremely joyful human” who would often stop by her office just to say hi, talk about what they were both reading, or what was going on in their classes — all kinds of non-work-related things, she said.

“I’m the department head, so people stopped by my office all the time,” Plass said. “But not always just to say hi, so I loved those visits. It was always really sweet.”

Plass said her favorite memory of Benjamin was the first day of classes during the fall 2021 semester — Benjamin’s first day of teaching at JMU and Plass’ first day being the new department head of justice studies — when she, Benjamin and Perez all took first-day-of-school pictures in the hallway together, each of them excited and “sort of scared” for the new semester ahead, she said.

“It was just so special to see these two beautiful, young scholars who were here and so excited to be with us,” Plass said.

Case Watkins, associate professor of justice studies, was on the search committee that hired Benjamin and said in an interview with The Breeze that from the start, the department thought she was “absolutely incredible.” Watkins described Benjamin as sharp, fierce, generous, engaging, graceful, caring, powerful and, above all, he said, unruly.

“This was her self-described persona,” Watkins said in an email. “And if you knew her, you came to know what unruly meant. It meant autonomy. It meant unconquerable. It meant uncontrolled by the unjust structures of modern life that seek to repress and restrict.”

Watkins said Benjamin’s biggest impact and legacy on JMU was her ability to bring so many groups together across campus in different interdisciplinary studies, including Latin American, Latinx, and Caribbean Studies; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Sisters in Session; the Center for Multicultural Student Services; and African, African American, and Diaspora Studies. Watkins said Benjamin was a true leader on campus and that JMU was fortunate to have her for the year and a half that it did.

“She wasted no time. She had friends, collaborators, mentees, and admirers all over campus, all over the Caribbean, in New York, Maryland, and in places we’ll never know,” Watkins said in an email. “Her work was urgent, wise, loving, fierce, benevolent, inclusive and unruly. She stood up and challenged white supremacy and social injustice everywhere she found it. I and so many others will continue to be inspired by her, every day.”

Watkins said while he and many others in the justice department mentored Benjamin and showed her the ropes, they learned so much more from her than she learned from them.

His favorite memory of Benjamin was at a bonfire that took place at his house last fall. He said faculty members within the department would often come over to his family’s house for bonfires, and on one of these days, Benjamin — who’s originally from Brooklyn, New York — decided she wanted to chop wood.

“Within a couple of minutes, she’s out there with a very heavy wood chopping ax, just slamming wood, chopping wood and stacking it up,” Watkins said. “We always just had a chuckle that she really embraced, kind of, country living … She really embraced the Shenandoah Valley and nothing says that more than her out there chopping firewood in the middle of the night.”

Senior Jay Norton was involved in Benjamin’s hiring process and was in her first-ever teaching demo at JMU on race and Blackness as a AAAD minor. Norton said after the demo, he was instantly intrigued by Benjamin and once she was officially hired at JMU, he knew he wanted to take more of her classes. In Benjamin’s three semesters at JMU, Norton took a class with her for two of them.

He said it was evident Benjamin was passionate about the work she did. In Benjamin’s Global Migration class in spring 2022, Norton said, she took an intersectional approach to each subject matter, including race, Black migration, Indigenous migration and women and discussed how each subject intertwined. The following semester, in fall 2022, Norton took Benjamin’s Justice in American Society class.

“Even that class again, she was on fire,” Norton said. “We talked about so many different issues … She was enlightening so many minds about what it means to be critical thinkers and to think about issues like race and think about issues like gender and sexuality, but she did it in a way that people were receptive to it.”

Norton said Benjamin was a “phenomenal woman” who “walked the walk” and “talked the talk” when it came to being committed to a more equitable society and advocating for oppressed groups.

Not only was Benjamin a great professor, he said, but a great friend. Benjamin would always check in on him — both in-person and via email, he said — and that he could always go to her office whenever he just needed to talk. Nothing was ever off-limits, he said.

Norton said last semester, Benjamin was planning a study abroad trip to Ireland on civil rights and social justice and personally asked him to go. Norton said he couldn’t afford the trip, so Benjamin got money from the Center for Global Engagement and he only had to pay out-ofpocket for his plane ticket. The trip took place in January after Benjamin’s death, but Norton said he and the group painted “Be Bold” on a rock in Ireland to keep her memory alive on the trip.

“I’d never been off the east coast,” Norton said. “I’d never traveled internationally, so it was my first time and she was the reason. I’ll forever be grateful and remember her for that.”

Delores Phillips, director of AAAD, only worked with Benjamin for the fall 2022 semester but said she had an impact on AAAD and was “so necessary” to the department. Phillips said she can “only imagine how lost” AAAD students feel right now — Benjamin was the main adviser within AAAD, so she was the one interacting with students, helping them through their course requirements, answering their questions and “shepherding” them through the minor.

Phillips began as director of AAAD in fall 2022 and said her first semester in the role wasn’t easy. It was a big transition and a lot to get her head around, she said, but Benjamin always made her feel calm, like “we got this,” she said.

“When I was with her, I always felt like, ‘Yeah, I can do this and she’s here to help me do this,’” Phillips said. “I never felt lonely as an incoming administrative/faculty member. I never felt like I was by myself.”

Phillips said Benjamin always had a smile on her face and described her as very kind, very generous, very collegial and very professional.

“She knew what she was here for,” Phillips said.

On Feb. 3, JMU held a memorial service for Benjamin. Sunlight shined through the windows of the Taylor Hall chapel in Madison Union, illuminating the room full of mourners. Benjamin’s photo — framed by floral arrangements — stood at the front of the room.

Some wept while others remained silent, all grieving a tremendous loss and celebrating the multi-faceted life she led. Benjamin’s friends, family, coworkers and students attended.

The service was led by Benjamin’s friend and coworker Deborwah Faulk, an assistant professor of sociology at JMU. Speakers took turns reminiscing their time with Benjamin through anecdotes, stories and poetry. They painted a portrait of someone who advocated on behalf of the Black community, women and other marginalized groups.

“Tatiana was an unruly woman who believed that radical love disrupted systems,” DeAndrae Powell, assistant director of the Intercultural Greek Council and multicultural programs, said. “She believed in the power of community and demonstrated that in the way she lived her life.”

Many words were used to describe Benjamin — scholar, teacher, sister, daughter, auntie, friend, optimistic and, most importantly, unruly.

“To honor her, to remember her [we have to] do the following: to take up space, to speak truth to power and to be unruly,” Augustus Hallmon, assistant professor at the Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management, said.

Remarks from friends, family, coworkers and students echoed the service’s theme on the program: “In loving memory of the unruly.”

Eleanor Shaw contributed to this report.

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