Dr. J Finley 00F, Professor of Africana Studies Who Researches Black Women’s Humor, to Deliver Commencement Address

When Finley was a high school student in Kentucky, a coworker told her she was “a Hampshire student” and suggested she look up the College.

“I was never the ‘follow the directions’ type,” she says now. “I mean, I listen, but I always have to put a little razzle-dazzle on things to make them my own, whether it’s how I write, how I dress, the way I talk. I’ve never been a rule follower.”  

Finley was immediately interested in Hampshire. “I was drawn to the idea of doing something conventional in an unconventional way,” she says. “No grades and no tests was cool and all, but the idea that I could chart my own path pulled me in like a moth to a flame.”

Getting to Hampshire was key, but Finley notes that the more interesting story might be how she stayed at Hampshire. “I was a fish out of water,” she remembers. “I hadn’t traveled much. The people I was meeting were from all over the world! I was just out of my element. My writing was not up to par in terms of college-level preparation. That was a humbling experience, one that had me questioning if I was even meant to be a college student.”

How did she meet these challenges and thrive? “With commitment, discipline, and peers who were interesting, smart, and generous,” she says. “Hampshire let me be myself and become a version of myself who was indeed meant to be there. I experimented with arguments. I read what was hard. I clarified my political orientation toward justice. I learned to play in the woods and I developed the young version of the voice I still speak with.” After completing her degree with a concentration in Black studies and legal studies, Finley earned an M.A. and then her Ph.D. in African diaspora studies at the University of California, Berkeley.

Today Finley is an associate professor of Africana studies at Pomona College, in Claremont, California, with unique research interests. She focuses on Black women’s history, performance, and cultural expression, as well as the performative and political efficacy of Black women’s humor and comedy. Specifically, she conducts ethnographic fieldwork and applies multidisciplinary readings of humor and comedic materials, paying close attention to how various aspects of history, identity, and experience influence and saturate Black women’s comedy. Her work also examines Black feminist theory and politics and the challenges presented to Black women across space, time, and political orientation.

There isn’t an area of my professional life untouched by the seeds planted at Hampshire.

In addition to courses on the history and theoretical aspects of stand-up comedy, Finley teaches her students the practice of stand-up comedy based on her own experience as an amateur performer and works with professional comedians and comedy educators. She is the co-president, co-executive director, and cofounder of the Critical Humor Studies Association, and her first book, Sass: Black Women’s Humor and Humanity (UNC Press 2024), presents the first ethnographic study of Black women’s humor, offering a comprehensive reading of its personal, poetic, and political dimensions from slavery to today.

“There isn’t an area of my professional life untouched by the seeds planted at Hampshire,” she says. “As a professor of Black studies, I take seriously the field’s defining characteristic — that there is a fundamental and inseparable connection between knowledge, education, and the transformation of society into one that is more just, more equitable, and that opens up all the promise and potential to all its citizens.

“I believe in my soul that the work I do in the classroom, on the page, and even occasionally on the stage [reflects] that ‘to know is not enough.’ We must act on what we know and understand about the world in order to make it a place worth living in, and that’s what I strive to do when I teach — to show my students how they can make use of the critical tools we develop to make an impact.”