Exploring Publications about Anti-racism in Academic Journals During a Time of Poly Crisis

• In Event: Critical Race Perspectives in Education

Abstract

This study examines the amount of scholarly interest in anti-racist practices after 2020 and of anti-racist empirical versus conceptual articles. The study examines publications’ purposes and to what extent they change after 2020. Analyses detected statistically-significantly higher numbers of publications overall and in each category (case studies, empirical, and conceptual) during 2020-2025 versus 2015-2019. Data indicate that anti-racist case-study and conceptual publications outnumber empirical studies and that they started to decrease in 2024, while empirical publications remained steady. The publication trajectory of anti-racist scholarship reveals patterns shaped by external events. Conceptual articles surged in response to the sociopolitical climate of 2020, but declined amid renewed opposition to DEI. Empirical research, while slower to emerge, has maintained steadier output.

Authors

• Estella Chizhik, California State University - Long Beach

• Tamika Lovelace, San Diego State University

• Alexander W. Chizhik, San Diego State University