Ethnic Studies Futures: Unforgetting as a Path to Reimagining Education

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

This presidential session explores Ethnic Studies as a critical site for unforgetting histories and imagining equitable education futures. Rooted in student and community-driven movements to fight for representation in schools, the discipline of Ethnic Studies offers powerful models for engaging past social movements to shape liberatory futures. We convene scholars and practitioners to examine how identity-affirming frameworks, particularly those led by Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian communities, can inform present-day policy and curriculum. Emphasizing intergenerational dialogue, this session invites participants to co-construct new narratives, methodologies, and research agendas that prioritize challenging dominant narratives and uplifting civic engagement. In a time of curricular erasure and political backlash, Ethnic Studies serves as a foundation for innovation and collective futurity in education research.

Sub Unit

• AERA Presidential Session

Chair

• Jessica Lee Stovall, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Papers

• Pushing for Complexity, Truth, and Freedom: A Brief History of Ethnic Studies in US Schools - Michelle A. Purdy, Washington University in St. Louis

• “The Long-Term Civic and Educational Consequences of Ethnic Studies.” - Sade Bonilla, University of Pennsylvania

• "We’re Actually Making History”: A Call to Support Teachers and Students in High School Black Studies - Taylor Milan Hall, Learn4life Metro Atlanta Regional Education Partnership; Farzana Tabitha Saleem Adjah, Stanford University; Jessica Lee Stovall, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Voices from the Field: Ethnic Studies in Action - Roxana Daylen Dueñas, Los Angeles Unified School District; Abram Jackson, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and the Black Teacher Project; Spencer Pritchard, Berkeley High School and the Black Teacher Project; Jesse Hagopian, Seattle Public Schools

Discussant

• Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales, San Francisco State University