Alaina Neal-Jackson
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Location
1360 C
610 E. University Ave.
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259
Dr. Alaina Neal-Jackson’s (AM ’12, PhD ’18) research is centered on race and gender in schooling—part of a larger interest in the health and welfare of Black students particularly, but not singularly, in underserved contexts. Drawing upon sociological frames and critical race and gender theories, Neal-Jackson examines how schools, as social institutions, structure Black girls’ and women’s experiences and opportunities, and in what ways this structuring reproduces social inequalities along raced, gendered, and classed lines.
Neal-Jackson earned her bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric, Narrative, and Image from the University of California, Berkeley before pursuing her studies at the Marsal Family School of Education. She completed a master’s with a concentration in Educational Leadership and Policy and a doctorate in Educational Studies. Her scholarship has been published in the Review of Educational Research, Teachers' College Record, The Journal of College Student Development, and The Journal of Educational Administration and History.
While completing her dissertation, Neal-Jackson co-lead a school-based restorative justice center which ignited a passion for expanding the transformative potential of restorative practices within teacher education and P-12 educational spaces. Neal-Jackson previously served as the Educational Culture and Justice Coordinator for the Marsal School’s Detroit P-20 Partnership where she worked closely with the school community at The School at Marygrove to build a culture where social justice was seen and felt in policies and everyday practice.