A Morrisonian Call for the Death of (Critical) Whiteness (Studies) in Teacher Education

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Decolonial Entry Points to Theory, Method, and Resistance to Epistemicide (Table 2)

Abstract

This conceptual literature review is a Black feminist love letter to Toni Morrison. Given that Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS) enthusiasts claim Morrison’s work as central, we wonder, how has CWS in teacher education taken up her work? Or has it merely been “playing in the dark?” Through a Morrisonian analysis of the Africanist (non)presence, we closely read recent CWS in teacher education literature while employing letter writing, an exegetical cultural studies method, to explore the above questions. Regrettably, our analysis shows an (ab)use of the Africanist (non)presence—a pattern of playing in the dark. Therefore, we call for the joy-full death of (critical) whiteness (studies) in teacher education while delighting in what Morrison’s theorizing enlivens towards otherwise worlds.

Authors

• Lucia Mock, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Sean D. Hernández Adkins, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Esther O. Ohito, Rutgers University
  Non-Presenting Author