Antiracism Colloquium: Keynote Address with Leigh Patel

About the Antiracism Colloquium
The dije Office and the Race and Justice Institute invite you to participate in the Inaugural Antiracism Colloquium. The goal of the antiracism colloquium is to support the building of critical literacies of race and settler colonialism to support research and teaching centered on educational justice.

This year, Dr. Leigh Patel, Associate Dean of Equity and Justice and Professor of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy in the University of Pittsburgh School of Education, will do a 1-week virtual residency that will include a keynote, sessions with students, sessions with faculty, and will culminate with presentations from student recipients of our Anti-Racism Min-grants.

Leigh Patel is an interdisciplinary writer, educator, and public intellectual. Drawing from several disciplinary traditions, Dr. Patel’s work focuses on the ways that formal education too often acts as an efficient conduit for oppression and the constant potential for education to be a tool for liberation. She has published widely, in academic outlets as well widely accessed sources including NPR, The Feminist Wire, Racialicious, and Beacon Broadside. Professor Patel is a proud board member of Education for Liberation, a national network that is dedicated to leadership by people of color for educational freedom. She is the author of five books, including the award winning Youth held at the border: Immigration and the politics of Inclusion, Decolonizing educational research: From ownership to answerability. Her forthcoming book from Beacon Press is title: No study without struggle: Confronting settler colonialism in higher education. Prior to working in the academy, Dr. Patel was a middle school language arts teacher, a reading specialist, and a state-level policymaker. Her walk-on song is “Can I kick it” by a Tribe Called Quest.