Marcyliena H. Morgan (1950–2025)

On a short list of professional experiences that have brought me both deep joy and a true sense of accomplishment, three involve Ernest E. Monrad Professor Marcyliena Morgan.The most impactful of these experiences was when I finally met her in 2019 during a short visit to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to take part in a semiotics symposium.I was introduced to Professor Morgan's work more than a decade before that meeting: soon after I began my graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania.I recall the distinct feeling of Professor Morgan "inviting" me into linguistic anthropology in the many ways she had clearly made space for me and other Black women in the subfield and its sister fields.I also recall someone telling me that they thought I was the first Black woman to matriculate into the Educational Linguistics program since Professor Morgan, unknowingly saddling me with that strange weight of Black exceptionalism while also blessing me with the distinct pride of following in her hallowed footsteps.