Race, Rurality, and Education: Envisioning Educational Equity in Racialized Rural Spaces

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

With four papers from race and rural scholars, this session explores the ideological and institutional realities of rural life and their racialized implications with the goal of moving towards a critical understanding of rural futures. Each paper’s author(s) presents their work on topics including: 1) a conceptual exploration of “the rural imaginary”; 2) an examination of how the creation of land-grant universities in 1862 helped bring about rural realities dominated by white interests; 3) a critical analysis of the effects of school closures for rural Black communities in the Arkansas Delta; and 4) a qualitative study of rural Latinx youth’s experiences in California’s migrant agricultural labor economy. Following the presentations, the Chair and panelists will encourage a robust question-and-answer session.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender in Education

Chair

• Joyce E. King, Georgia State University

Papers

• Imagining the Rural: Political Economy and Racialized Representations of Rurality in Education and Social Research - Rachelle Kuehl, Virginia Tech; Zeus Leonardo, University of California - Berkeley

• The First Morrill Act and Agricultural Settler Conquest: The Case of the University of California - Rosalie Zdzienicka Fanshel, University of California - Berkeley

• Fighting Back: School Closure and Resistance in the Rural Black South - Mara C. Tieken, Bates College

• The Multi-Scalar (De)Construction of Rural Latinidad and College (In)Opportunities in California’s San Joaquin Valley - Mayra Puente, University of California - Santa Barbara

Session Organizer

• Rachelle Kuehl, Virginia Tech

Discussant

• Zeus Leonardo, University of California - Berkeley