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Obama '85 portrait unveiled in Yankee Doodle Tap Room

As a testament to Obama’s prominent public image and popularity, professors in the sociology department — in which Obama concentrated — and the Center for African American Studies unveiled her senior portrait on the Class Photo Wall of the Nassau Inn’s Yankee Doodle Tap Room on Wednesday. The wall displays portraits of several notable alumni, including Jimmy Stewart ’32 and Brooke Shields ’87.

Those absent at the event included the first family, as well as sociology professor emeritus Marvin Bressler, who was a close adviser to Obama and her brother, Craig Robinson ’83, during their years at Princeton.

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The faculty members who worked with Michelle Robinson admitted that in 1985 they never expected her to become famous, though they lauded her thesis and its clever approach to the issue of racial identity.

Sociology professor Howard Taylor, director of the Center for African American Studies during Obama’s Princeton tenure and co-adviser of Obama’s thesis with sociology professor emeritus Walter Wallace, said he was impressed by the way Obama interviewed not only fellow African-American students but also African-American alumni to incorporate their reflections on Princeton into her research.

Wallace urged sociology students present to consider Obama’s thesis when planning their research. Taylor agreed, encouraging current students to modify and expand Obama’s project by examining the impact of gender and other factors on the Princeton experience.

Despite the praise it received Wednesday, Obama’s thesis underwent intense national scrutiny in 2008, with its contents dominating the media firestorm surrounding her views on race.

In May, Christopher Hitchens, a blogger for slate.com, cited Obama’s thesis as evidence of the existence of racial separatism in her ideals.

Her professors explained her work differently.

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“They selectively quoted her,” Taylor said. “They take one little phrase out, such as the use of ‘The White Oppressors’ at one point. Three words, out of a 70-page thesis. I got really angry with the press to the extent they were doing that.”

“She was not a black militant, by any means,” Taylor added.

Taylor described Obama’s thesis instead as an early indication of how she would live after graduation.

“She studied [how] students felt about rejoining the black community,” he said. “And that’s what she did ... She used her excellent professional and undergraduate educations to make a commitment to the black community.”

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Beyond her academic strengths, Obama’s personality also drew praise from the speakers.

“She was ... very, very clever and very much ... a researcher, [a] very disciplined thinker, very quiet but very precise,” Taylor said.

Wallace went further, attributing Obama’s rising national popularity to her charm.

“When you see photographs of her, she’s always smiling, and people like that,” he said.

Over the past year, the public has developed a fascination with Obama: She has been called “the closer” for her ability to convince undecided voters to support her husband.

While the president’s origins extend to Hawaii, Indonesia and Kenya, the first lady’s Midwestern roots and upbringing brought her husband closer to many Americans, a connection that some consider an important factor in her public appeal.

Sociology concentrator Damaris Suero-Martinez ’10 captured her view of Obama in one sentence. “I think she keeps it real, basically," she said.

Still, not all regard Obama favorably. Early in her husband’s campaign, Obama faced national pressure to tone down her sarcastic humor after some of her remarks received negative press.

Those at Wednesday’s gathering, however, said they did not share these unfavorable views.

“In the whole campaign, a lot of people tried to hate on her, but I just feel that she’s honest to herself,” Suero-Martinez said, adding, “She kept to her personality. She didn’t try to change for [Barack].”

Obama’s remarks have not been the only source of national fascination: Her fashion choices have also caused waves. Much like Jacqueline Kennedy captivated the U.S. public’s attention with her style in the ’60s, Obama has been called “U.S. Fashion’s One-Woman Bailout” by The New York Times.

On inauguration night, the top story on cnn.com was not a story about Barack Obama. It was about Michelle Obama’s inauguration gown.

Some do not attribute her popularity to her personality.

Emily Sullivan ’11 gave the first lady less credit for her rise in favor during President Obama’s campaign, saying it derived from “a lot of coat-tailing off of [her husband’s] popularity.”

Yet sociology majors continue to see Obama as a role model for those in the field.

“A lot of my family [members say], ‘What are you doing in sociology? Where are you going with that?’ ” Suero-Martinez said. “Since she made it, I can too.”

Chante Coleman ’09, a sociology major, also considered Obama a sociology success story. “[I am] proud to have someone in the sociology department who has succeeded as much as Obama has,” she said. “We’re proud of her.”