White-centric Portrayals of the Rurality of Blackness and Black life (Poster 9)

• In Event: Division G Vice President Graduate Student/Early Career Scholar Poster Session

Abstract

White-centric portrayals of rurality have rendered Blackness and Black life as placeless in our schools and societal views even in the Black Belt of the American South (Swain & Baker, 2021). In response to the slight to the centrality and spatiality of Black rural livingness, this study employs Black Geographies (McKittrick, 2006; Harris, 2019) and Black rurality (Howard & Baker, 2024) to explore the lived and educational experiences of Black community members educated in a Black rural school community in Mississippi. This important because it holds the potential for humanizing rural education spaces by centering Black livingness with rural spaces.

Author

• Johnathan T. Hill, Michigan State University