AERA Annual Meeting Social Justice Action Committee Session: Blackademics as Prophetic Witnesses and the Continuing Struggle for Racial Justice in Higher Education

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, we discuss and further conceptualize “Blackademics” as a means of understanding how critical Black scholars, or our definition of Blackademics, navigate the historically white system of higher education. We are especially interested in how Blackademics, as we define them, experience the academy when their work, actions, and public stances denounce white supremacy. Our work is informed by Critical Race Theory (CRT). We also connect our concept of Blackademic to the tradition of prophetic witnessing as it was advanced by James Cone and others in the tradition of Black Liberation Theology.

Sub Unit

• Social Justice Action Committee

Chair

• Joyce M. McCall, Arizona State University

Participants

• Adrianne Musu Davis, Rutgers University - New Brunswick

• Marjoris V. Regus, Rutgers University

• Reginald D. Wilkerson, College of William & Mary

• Jamon H. Flowers, University of Georgia

• George L. Wimberly, American Educational Research Association