2024 AERA Annual Meeting Opening Plenary—Fighting Back to Move Forward: Defending the Freedom to Learn In the War Against Woke

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

In her keynote lecture, Professor Crenshaw will outline how extremists have weaponized critical race theory (CRT) in their “war on woke,” a dog whistle campaign that has functioned to impair public education, erase history, circumscribe freedom of expression, and roll back the modest gains of the Civil Rights Movement. Professor Crenshaw will explore the ways that liberal institutions have been complicit in this war, endangering core features of our democracy. In the face of ever-growing book bans, legislation prohibiting the teaching of CRT, and an increasingly regressive environment in schools around the country, the collective efforts of educators to defend the freedom to learn in our schools is critical to the freedom to live in a multiracial democracy.

Professor Crenshaw’s lecture will be followed by a conversation with AERA President Tyrone C. Howard and a moderated Q&A with attendees.

Sub Unit

• AERA Sessions

Chairs

• Tyrone C. Howard, University of California - Los Angeles

• Felice J. Levine, American Educational Research Association

Speaker

• Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, University of California - Los Angeles