SUNY series, Critical Race Studies in Education – serie

Multidisciplinary anthology on teaching issues of race and racism in US college classrooms.The college classroom is inevitably influenced by, and in turn influences, the world around it. In the United States, this means the complex topic of race can come into play in ways that are both explicit and implicit. Teaching Race in Perilous Times highlights and confronts the challenges of teaching race in the United States-from syllabus development and pedagogical strategies to accreditation and curricular reform. Across fifteen original essays, contributors draw on their experiences teaching in different institutional contexts and adopt various qualitative methods from their home disciplines to offer practical strategies for discussing race and racism with students while also reflecting on broader issues in higher education. Contributors examine how teachers can respond productively to emotionally charged contexts, recognize the roles and pressures that faculty assume as activists in the classroom, focus a timely lens on the shifting racial politics and economics of higher education, and call for a more historically sensitive reading of the pedagogies involved in teaching race. The volume offers a corrective to claims following the 2016 US presidential election that the current moment is unprecedented, highlighting the pivotal role of the classroom in contextualizing and responding to our perilous times.

Multidisciplinary anthology on teaching issues of race and racism in US college classrooms.The college classroom is inevitably influenced by, and in turn influences, the world around it. In the United States, this means the complex topic of race can come into play in ways that are both explicit and implicit. Teaching Race in Perilous Times highlights and confronts the challenges of teaching race in the United States-from syllabus development and pedagogical strategies to accreditation and curricular reform. Across fifteen original essays, contributors draw on their experiences teaching in different institutional contexts and adopt various qualitative methods from their home disciplines to offer practical strategies for discussing race and racism with students while also reflecting on broader issues in higher education. Contributors examine how teachers can respond productively to emotionally charged contexts, recognize the roles and pressures that faculty assume as activists in the classroom, focus a timely lens on the shifting racial politics and economics of higher education, and call for a more historically sensitive reading of the pedagogies involved in teaching race. The volume offers a corrective to claims following the 2016 US presidential election that the current moment is unprecedented, highlighting the pivotal role of the classroom in contextualizing and responding to our perilous times.

Argues that plantation life, its racialized inequities, and the ongoing struggle against them are embedded in not only the physical structures but also the everyday workings of higher education.Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions provides a multidisciplinary exploration of the contemporary university's entanglement with the history of slavery and settler colonialism in the United States. Inspired by more than a hundred student-led protests during the Movement for Black Lives, contributors examine how campus rebellions-and university responses to them-expose the racialized inequities at the core of higher education. Plantation politics are embedded in the everyday workings of universities-in not only the physical structures and spaces of academic institutions, but in its recruitment and attainment strategies, hiring practices, curriculum, and notions of sociality, safety, and community. The book is comprised of three sections that highlight how white supremacy shapes campus communities and classrooms; how current diversity and inclusion initiatives perpetuate inequality; and how students, staff, and faculty practice resistance in the face of institutional and legislative repression. Each chapter interrogates a connection between the academy and the plantation, exploring how Black people and their labor are viewed as simultaneously essential and disruptive to university cultures and economies. The volume is an indispensable read for students, faculty, student affairs professionals, and administrators invested in learning more about how power operates within education and imagining emancipatory futures.

Argues that plantation life, its racialized inequities, and the ongoing struggle against them are embedded in not only the physical structures but also the everyday workings of higher education.Plantation Politics and Campus Rebellions provides a multidisciplinary exploration of the contemporary university's entanglement with the history of slavery and settler colonialism in the United States. Inspired by more than a hundred student-led protests during the Movement for Black Lives, contributors examine how campus rebellions-and university responses to them-expose the racialized inequities at the core of higher education. Plantation politics are embedded in the everyday workings of universities-in not only the physical structures and spaces of academic institutions, but in its recruitment and attainment strategies, hiring practices, curriculum, and notions of sociality, safety, and community. The book is comprised of three sections that highlight how white supremacy shapes campus communities and classrooms; how current diversity and inclusion initiatives perpetuate inequality; and how students, staff, and faculty practice resistance in the face of institutional and legislative repression. Each chapter interrogates a connection between the academy and the plantation, exploring how Black people and their labor are viewed as simultaneously essential and disruptive to university cultures and economies. The volume is an indispensable read for students, faculty, student affairs professionals, and administrators invested in learning more about how power operates within education and imagining emancipatory futures.

Follows a Black woman's forty-year career in academia, sharing how race and gender can disrupt and enhance the professional and the personal, from leadership and policies to family life.Finalist for the 2021 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the Education CategoryIn Sisterlocking Discoarse, hair is a medium for reflecting on how academic leadership looks, performs, and changes when embodied by a Black woman. In these ten essays, Valerie Lee traverses disciplines and genres, weaving together memoir, literary analysis, legal cases, folklore, letters, travelogues, family photographs, and cartoons to share her story of navigating academia. Lee's path is not singular or linear, but rather communal and circular as she revisits her earliest years in her grandmother's home, advances through the professoriate and senior administration, and addresses her hopes and fears for her own children. Drawing inspiration from the African American storytelling traditions she has spent decades studying and teaching, Lee approaches issues of race, gender, social justice, academic labor, and leadership with a voice that is clear, intimate, and humorous. As she writes in the introduction, "Sisterlocking Discoarse is about braiding and breathing and believing that a Black woman's journey through the academy is important." Lee's journey will appeal to students, faculty, and administrators across fields and institutions who are committed to making higher education more inclusive, while speaking to the experiences of professional women of color more broadly.

Ethnography of Black engineering majors navigating campus life at a historically White university.An in-depth ethnography of Black engineering students at a historically White institution, Black Campus Life examines the intersection of two crises, up close: the limited number of college graduates in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, and the state of race relations in higher education. Antar Tichavakunda takes readers across campus, from study groups to parties and beyond as these students work hard, have fun, skip class, fundraise, and, at times, find themselves in tense racialized encounters. By consistently centering their perspectives and demonstrating how different campus communities, or social worlds, shape their experiences, Tichavakunda challenges assumptions about not only Black STEM majors but also Black students and the "racial climate" on college campuses more generally. Most fundamentally, Black Campus Life argues that Black collegians are more than the racism they endure. By studying and appreciating the everyday richness and complexity of their experiences, we all-faculty, administrators, parents, policymakers, and the broader public-might learn how to better support them.This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)-a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries.

A rich, authentic account of eight young Black men's experiences on their paths to and through college.Drawing on interviews that span over seven years, Derrick R. Brooms provides detailed accounts of a select group of Black young men's pathways from secondary school through college. As opposed to the same old stories about young Black men, Brooms offers new narratives that speak to Black boys' and young men's agency, aspirations, hopes, and possibilities. Even as they feel contested and constrained because they are Black and male, these young men anchor their educational desires within their families and communities. Critical to their journeys are the many challenges they face in public discourse and societal projections, in their home neighborhoods and schooling community, in educational environments, and in their health and well-being. In charting these challenges and the high stakes of the trials, lessons, and triumphs they experience, Brooms shows that we cannot understand the educational journeys of Black boys and young men without accounting for the full sociocultural contexts of their lives and how they make sense of those contexts.

A rich, authentic account of eight young Black men's experiences on their paths to and through college.Drawing on interviews that span over seven years, Derrick R. Brooms provides detailed accounts of a select group of Black young men's pathways from secondary school through college. As opposed to the same old stories about young Black men, Brooms offers new narratives that speak to Black boys' and young men's agency, aspirations, hopes, and possibilities. Even as they feel contested and constrained because they are Black and male, these young men anchor their educational desires within their families and communities. Critical to their journeys are the many challenges they face in public discourse and societal projections, in their home neighborhoods and schooling community, in educational environments, and in their health and well-being. In charting these challenges and the high stakes of the trials, lessons, and triumphs they experience, Brooms shows that we cannot understand the educational journeys of Black boys and young men without accounting for the full sociocultural contexts of their lives and how they make sense of those contexts.

Offers insight into race-based disparities in higher education and practical tools for advancing racial equity on college and university campuses.The current socio-political moment-rife with racial tensions and overt bigotry-has exacerbated longstanding racial inequities in higher education. While educational scholars have developed conceptual tools and offered data-informed recommendations for rooting out racism in campus policies and practices, this work is largely inaccessible to the public. At the same time, practitioners and policymakers are increasingly called on to implement quick solutions to what are, in fact, profound, structural problems. Racial Equity on College Campuses bridges this gap, marshaling the expertise of nineteen scholars and practitioners to translate research-based findings into actionable recommendations in three key areas: university leadership, teaching and learning, and student and campus life. The strategies gathered here will prove useful to institutional actors engaged in both real-time and long-term decision-making across contexts-from the classroom to the boardroom.

Offers insight into race-based disparities in higher education and practical tools for advancing racial equity on college and university campuses.The current socio-political moment-rife with racial tensions and overt bigotry-has exacerbated longstanding racial inequities in higher education. While educational scholars have developed conceptual tools and offered data-informed recommendations for rooting out racism in campus policies and practices, this work is largely inaccessible to the public. At the same time, practitioners and policymakers are increasingly called on to implement quick solutions to what are, in fact, profound, structural problems. Racial Equity on College Campuses bridges this gap, marshaling the expertise of nineteen scholars and practitioners to translate research-based findings into actionable recommendations in three key areas: university leadership, teaching and learning, and student and campus life. The strategies gathered here will prove useful to institutional actors engaged in both real-time and long-term decision-making across contexts-from the classroom to the boardroom.

A powerful anthology on the role of curricula in perpetuating—and resisting—oppression.Winner of the 2023 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Division B of the American Educational Research Association Black Lives Matter in US Schools critically examines the relationship between schooling and sociocultural abolitionist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter. Aligning with a long history of education scholars who have insisted on the enmeshed nature of schools and society, the book addresses the role of various forms of curricula that perpetuate anti-Blackness while simultaneously shaping Black ways of being, knowing, and doing. While its focus tends toward issues of normalized violence, Black Lives Matter in US Schools is equally concerned with possibilities for justice stemming from curricular change and affects like hope and love that are central to radical acts of resistance to oppression. Themes range from critical literacies to IQ tests, from Afro-surrealism to historiography, as the book strategically tacks between traditional forms of qualitative and quantitative research and more personal narratives. Black Lives Matter in US Schools speaks powerfully against the continued onslaught of inequities in schools and their communities, working to create space for forms of learning that are responsible to and for Black lives.

A powerful anthology on the role of curricula in perpetuating—and resisting—oppression.Winner of the 2023 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Division B of the American Educational Research Association Black Lives Matter in US Schools critically examines the relationship between schooling and sociocultural abolitionist movements such as #BlackLivesMatter. Aligning with a long history of education scholars who have insisted on the enmeshed nature of schools and society, the book addresses the role of various forms of curricula that perpetuate anti-Blackness while simultaneously shaping Black ways of being, knowing, and doing. While its focus tends toward issues of normalized violence, Black Lives Matter in US Schools is equally concerned with possibilities for justice stemming from curricular change and affects like hope and love that are central to radical acts of resistance to oppression. Themes range from critical literacies to IQ tests, from Afro-surrealism to historiography, as the book strategically tacks between traditional forms of qualitative and quantitative research and more personal narratives. Black Lives Matter in US Schools speaks powerfully against the continued onslaught of inequities in schools and their communities, working to create space for forms of learning that are responsible to and for Black lives.

Offers rich, wide-ranging counternarratives to social, political, and educational discourses that characterize urban schools and communities as places of despair, revealing the resources and strategies of resistance that teachers, students, and families use to succeed and thrive.Reauthoring Savage Inequalities brings together scholars, educators, practitioners, and students to counter dominant narratives of urban educational environments. Using a community cultural wealth lens, contributors center the strategies, actions, and ways of knowing communities of color use to resist systemic oppression. So often, discussions of urban schooling are filled with stories of what Jonathan Kozol famously referred to as "savage inequalities" in his 1991 book of the same title-with tales of deficiency and despair. The counternarratives in this volume grapple with the inequalities highlighted by Kozol. Yet, in foregrounding lived experiences of educating and being educated in schools and communities that were systemically isolated and disenfranchised then and continue to be thirty years later, Reauthoring Savage Inequalities brings nuance to depictions of teaching and learning in urban areas. In nineteen essays, as well as commentaries, a foreword, and an afterword, contributors engage readers in critical dialogue about the importance of community cultural wealth. They identify the sources of support that enable students, staff, parents, and community members to succeed and thrive despite the purposeful divestment in communities of color across this nation's cities.

Offers rich, wide-ranging counternarratives to social, political, and educational discourses that characterize urban schools and communities as places of despair, revealing the resources and strategies of resistance that teachers, students, and families use to succeed and thrive.Reauthoring Savage Inequalities brings together scholars, educators, practitioners, and students to counter dominant narratives of urban educational environments. Using a community cultural wealth lens, contributors center the strategies, actions, and ways of knowing communities of color use to resist systemic oppression. So often, discussions of urban schooling are filled with stories of what Jonathan Kozol famously referred to as "savage inequalities" in his 1991 book of the same title-with tales of deficiency and despair. The counternarratives in this volume grapple with the inequalities highlighted by Kozol. Yet, in foregrounding lived experiences of educating and being educated in schools and communities that were systemically isolated and disenfranchised then and continue to be thirty years later, Reauthoring Savage Inequalities brings nuance to depictions of teaching and learning in urban areas. In nineteen essays, as well as commentaries, a foreword, and an afterword, contributors engage readers in critical dialogue about the importance of community cultural wealth. They identify the sources of support that enable students, staff, parents, and community members to succeed and thrive despite the purposeful divestment in communities of color across this nation's cities.

Draws on and centers oral histories with Black women college graduates to demonstrate the role of community in fostering their success in and beyond education.The Chosen We elevates the oral histories of 105 accomplished, college-educated Black women who earned success despite experiencing reprehensible racist and sexist barriers. The central argument is that these women succeeded in and beyond college by developing a Chosen We-a community with one another. The book builds on their words and insights to offer a powerful rethinking of educational success that moves away from individualistic and competitive models and instead imagines success as a result of recognizing what people owe to one another. It also uncovers the importance of the type of institutions that students attend for higher education, comparing Black women's experiences not only by region and era but also by whether they attended a predominantly White institution (PWI) or a historically Black college or university (HBCU). The Chosen We features theoretical and methodological exemplars for how to conduct research across lines of difference. The Black women's oral histories shared here manifest the wisdom from which many groups in the United States might benefit-that liberation is only found through community.

Draws on and centers oral histories with Black women college graduates to demonstrate the role of community in fostering their success in and beyond education.The Chosen We elevates the oral histories of 105 accomplished, college-educated Black women who earned success despite experiencing reprehensible racist and sexist barriers. The central argument is that these women succeeded in and beyond college by developing a Chosen We-a community with one another. The book builds on their words and insights to offer a powerful rethinking of educational success that moves away from individualistic and competitive models and instead imagines success as a result of recognizing what people owe to one another. It also uncovers the importance of the type of institutions that students attend for higher education, comparing Black women's experiences not only by region and era but also by whether they attended a predominantly White institution (PWI) or a historically Black college or university (HBCU). The Chosen We features theoretical and methodological exemplars for how to conduct research across lines of difference. The Black women's oral histories shared here manifest the wisdom from which many groups in the United States might benefit-that liberation is only found through community.

Develops a theoretical and methodological focus on Blackness to rethink ideas about humanity underpinning the field of student development.Winner of the 2025 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Division B of the American Educational Research Association In "No Humans Involved: An Open Letter to My Colleagues," Jamaican writer and theorist Sylvia Wynter critiques the social and human sciences for perpetuating social hierarchies, particularly through the Western humanist framing of "Man" as the universal representation of humanity. Human development theories revolve around this concept, necessitating acquiescence to the category Man to claim humanity. But Blackness complicates and unsettles these terms in ways the fields of higher education and educational research are in many ways just beginning to confront.On Blackness, Liveliness, and What It Means to Be Human extends Wynter's critique to human development and academic knowledge production, arguing that Black specificity can create new possibilities for Black being. Wilson Kwamogi Okello closely examines holistic development theory, aiming not to reform but to reimagine the "self" it presupposes. Taking what he describes as a multimodal and multisensory approach, Okello engages a chorus of writers, thinkers, and cultural workers-Baldwin, Bambara, Brand, Hartman, Lorde, Sharpe, Spillers, Wilderson, and more-to reframe Blackness as a social, political, and historical matrix, going beyond the study of Black experiences, biology, or culture. Punctuated throughout by stunning images from artist Mikael Owunna's "Infinite Essence" series, the book proposes and enacts a methodological attunement to Blackness that can guide theory, policy, and practice toward an alternative praxis for the benefit of Black living.

Develops a theoretical and methodological focus on Blackness to rethink ideas about humanity underpinning the field of student development.Winner of the 2025 Outstanding Book Award presented by the Division B of the American Educational Research Association In "No Humans Involved: An Open Letter to My Colleagues," Jamaican writer and theorist Sylvia Wynter critiques the social and human sciences for perpetuating social hierarchies, particularly through the Western humanist framing of "Man" as the universal representation of humanity. Human development theories revolve around this concept, necessitating acquiescence to the category Man to claim humanity. But Blackness complicates and unsettles these terms in ways the fields of higher education and educational research are in many ways just beginning to confront.On Blackness, Liveliness, and What It Means to Be Human extends Wynter's critique to human development and academic knowledge production, arguing that Black specificity can create new possibilities for Black being. Wilson Kwamogi Okello closely examines holistic development theory, aiming not to reform but to reimagine the "self" it presupposes. Taking what he describes as a multimodal and multisensory approach, Okello engages a chorus of writers, thinkers, and cultural workers-Baldwin, Bambara, Brand, Hartman, Lorde, Sharpe, Spillers, Wilderson, and more-to reframe Blackness as a social, political, and historical matrix, going beyond the study of Black experiences, biology, or culture. Punctuated throughout by stunning images from artist Mikael Owunna's "Infinite Essence" series, the book proposes and enacts a methodological attunement to Blackness that can guide theory, policy, and practice toward an alternative praxis for the benefit of Black living.

Offers novel frameworks and models for understanding college access and choice among communities of Color.This much-needed volume brings together academics, practitioners, students, and community members of Color to thoroughly reframe college access and choice in research and practice. Enrollment rates continue to differ substantially by race and ethnicity. While Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color remain inequitably stratified in the pursuit of higher education, many models of college choice are simply insufficient for understanding the college-going processes of diverse students. Continually centering BIPOC knowledge, assets, and needs, contributors provide a series of varied yet connected frameworks grounded in culturally sustaining, community-oriented research. Like the educational journeys it represents, the volume is a communal activity that invites participation. Each chapter concludes with a series of critical reflection questions to guide readers in deeper learning and engagement.

Offers novel frameworks and models for understanding college access and choice among communities of Color.This much-needed volume brings together academics, practitioners, students, and community members of Color to thoroughly reframe college access and choice in research and practice. Enrollment rates continue to differ substantially by race and ethnicity. While Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color remain inequitably stratified in the pursuit of higher education, many models of college choice are simply insufficient for understanding the college-going processes of diverse students. Continually centering BIPOC knowledge, assets, and needs, contributors provide a series of varied yet connected frameworks grounded in culturally sustaining, community-oriented research. Like the educational journeys it represents, the volume is a communal activity that invites participation. Each chapter concludes with a series of critical reflection questions to guide readers in deeper learning and engagement.

Historical and contemporary perspectives on the role of support networks in creating community and contributing to Black students' success in different postsecondary settings.Black Student Support Networks shows how Black undergraduate and graduate students use formal and informal support networks to create community at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Contributors use a range of qualitative research methods, including autoethnography, personal narratives, and case studies, and theoretical frameworks, such as critical race theory and college choice, to illuminate the challenges and successes Black students encounter in their educational journeys. They advocate for culturally relevant pedagogy, emphasizing the importance of mentoring, faculty-student relationships, peer networks, spirituality, and programming in fully supporting Black students and fostering their safety, sense of belonging, and mental well-being. With a foreword by Ivory A. Toldson and afterword by Melanie Carter, the volume is essential reading for students, faculty, administrators, researchers, and policymakers dedicated to promoting the retention and graduation of Black students, especially in the post-Affirmative Action era.

Historical and contemporary perspectives on the role of support networks in creating community and contributing to Black students' success in different postsecondary settings.Black Student Support Networks shows how Black undergraduate and graduate students use formal and informal support networks to create community at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Contributors use a range of qualitative research methods, including autoethnography, personal narratives, and case studies, and theoretical frameworks, such as critical race theory and college choice, to illuminate the challenges and successes Black students encounter in their educational journeys. They advocate for culturally relevant pedagogy, emphasizing the importance of mentoring, faculty-student relationships, peer networks, spirituality, and programming in fully supporting Black students and fostering their safety, sense of belonging, and mental well-being. With a foreword by Ivory A. Toldson and afterword by Melanie Carter, the volume is essential reading for students, faculty, administrators, researchers, and policymakers dedicated to promoting the retention and graduation of Black students, especially in the post-Affirmative Action era.