Creating the 'Beloved Community' Spring Symposium

Christopher Emdin, PhD is a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also serves as Associate Director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education. He is an alumni Fellow at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University and Griot in Residence at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

He holds a PhD in Urban Education with a concentration in Mathematics, Science and Technology, a MS in Natural Sciences and Bachelors degrees in Physical Anthropology, Biology, and Chemistry. Dr. Emdin has taught middle school science and mathematics, high school physics and chemistry, and graduate school courses in both science and education.

Emdin was named STEM Access Champion of Change by the White House and Minorities in Energy Ambassador for the United States Department of Energy under the Obama Administration. He is author of the award-winning book, Urban Science Education for the Hip-hop Generation and the New York Times Bestseller, "For White Folks Who Teach In The Hood and the Rest of ya’ll Too." His latest book, "Ratchetdemic" will be released in 2021.

Noliwe Rooks, PhD, is the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor at Cornell University where she directs the American Studies program and is a professor in the Africana Studies department. An interdisciplinary scholar whose research on race, racism, inequality, education and gender in the United States engages scholarship from legal studies, media studies, sociology, political science and history. She is the author of four books, editor of four collections, and a writer whose research and writing has appeared in popular media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME magazine, and media outlets such as Democracy Now and various NPR programs. Rooks has broad knowledge about the making and unmaking of American public education, and her current research is on school choice initiatives, integration, segregation, and online and philanthropic support and funding for schools. The recipient of research awards from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Mellon Foundation funded Humanities Collective, she is consistently moved by the hope and promise of the inspired individuals and powerful movements fighting to save education—and possibly the nation in the process.

Wendy Luttrell is a leading authority on how urban American schooling shapes and reinforces beliefs about race, identity, knowledge, and power. Her first book, Schoolsmart and Motherwise: Working-Class Women’s Identity and Schooling (1997), the recipient of the Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award from the American Sociological Association (ASA), was based on first-person accounts of women, both white and African American, who were returning to the classroom as adult learners. The ASA also recognized Luttrell’s 2003 book Pregnant Bodies, Fertile Minds: Gender, Race and the Schooling of Pregnant Teens with an Outstanding Achievement in Scholarship Award for its analysis of how pregnant women and young mothers are educated and the stigmas they face. More recently, she edited the volume Qualitative Educational Research: Readings in Reflexive Methodology and Transformative Practice (2009).

Luttrell is internationally recognized for her use of visual methodology and a practice she has developed called collaborative seeing in her longitudinal research, Children Framing Childhoods and Looking Back. This research traces children’s use of photography and video from ages 10, 12, 16, and 18 as a means to explore the roles that gender, race, class, and immigrant status play in how the young people perceive and portray their family, school, social, and emotional worlds. One of the goals of this research is to challenge deficit-oriented views of young people growing up in urban, low-income families and attending underresourced schools.  Luttrell previously taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has won accolades for her abilities as an effective teacher; she is also a highly sought-after lecturer and speaker. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Shannon R. Waite, EdD joined the faculty at Fordham University as a clinical assistant professor of Educational Leadership in the Graduate School of Education in September 2016. Prior to coming to Fordham, Dr. Waite worked in various positions in the NYC Department of Education (NYCDOE). Her research interests include topics on diversity recruitment and pipeline programs, culturally responsive school leadership, developing critical consciousness in educational leaders and examining hyper-segregation and its connection to the school-to-prison pipeline. She served as co-principal investigator and briefly as principal investigator on the NYC Men Teach Research Team. Currently, she is the co-principal investigator on the Promoting Relevance, Access, Culture, and Equity (R.A.C.E.) Professional Learning Community with Interim Dean Dr. Akane Zusho in the Graduate School of Education. Dr. Waite is an educational policy maker for the largest urban public-school district in the nation. In March of 2018, she was appointed as a Mayoral appointee to the Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) and as a Trustee on the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS). She uses her platform and voice to increase the level of transparency and public accountability for the 1.1 million public school students and their families attending the city’s schools. Her work as a scholar-activist drives her staunch advocacy for anti-racist and equitable education for all; and particularly, for historically marginalized communities of color and communities with lower SES.

David E. Kirkland, PhD/JD, is a Distinguished Professor of English and Urban Education at New York University. He also serves as Vice Dean for Equity, Belonging, and Community Action, and the Executive Director of The Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and The Transformation of Schools. He is an activist and educator, cultural critic and author, and a leading national scholar and advocate for educational justice. While Dr. Kirkland’s work has always centered equity and culturally responsive-sustaining education, his most recent work with the NYU Metro Center has focused on supporting instruction responsive to the social, cultural, and emotional needs of students during the unique challenge of remote learning. Dr. Kirkland taught secondary school and served as a school administrator in Michigan and New York. He has also organized youth empowerment and youth mentoring programs in major U.S. cities and he currently leads efforts to enhance education options for vulnerable youth throughout the U.S. Dr. Kirkland has received many awards for his research and educational advocacy work; a full list can be found here.

Terri N. Watson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership and Human Development at The City College of New York. A Harlem native, her research examines effective school leadership and is aimed to improve the educational outcomes and life chances of historically excluded and underserved children and families. Watson was named a 2020 – 2022 Faculty Lead in conjunction with The Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research at The Graduate Center’s Center for the Humanities, The City University of New York. She is also the guest editor for a special issue of the Journal of Educational Administration and History (Routledge) titled, "A Seat at the Table: Examining the Impact, Ingenuity, and Leadership Practices of Black Woman and Girls in PK – 20 Contexts." Each manuscript utilized a critical methodology to center the lived experiences of Black women and girls in schools (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjeh20/52/3?nav=tocList).

Currently, Watson is a 2020–21 Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University at Buffalo's Center for Diversity Innovation. Through her work at the Center she will leverage university resources to address persistent public challenges and to lay the groundwork for the creation of a 'Beloved Community.'