NCTEAR 2022 Virtual Conference
Keynote Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Friday, February 4, 2022 : Dean Valerie Kinloch
Dean Valerie Kinloch is the Renée and Richard Goldman Endowed Dean and Professor of the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. She is President of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Co-Chair of Remake Learning, and among other affiliations, a member of the Board of Trustees of her undergraduate alma mater, Johnson C. Smith University. She was born and raised in Charleston, SC, where she completed her K-12 public school education.
Her scholarship examines the literacies of youth and adults in school and community contexts. Author of publications on race, place, literacy, and equity, she has written on poet June Jordan, on critical perspectives on language and learning, and on community engagement. Her book, Harlem On Our Minds: Place, Race, and the Literacies of Urban Youth, received the 2010 Outstanding Book of the Year Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Her most recent co-edited book with colleagues and her former doctoral students Carlotta Penn and Tanja Burkhard is titled, Race, Justice, and Activism in Literacy Instruction (Teachers College Press, 2020). Valerie’s newly published co-authored book with Emily Nemeth, Tamara Butler, and Grace Player is titled, Where is the Justice? Engaged Pedagogies in Schools and Communities (Teachers College Press & NCTE, 2021).
Valerie is also a Fellow of the American Education Research Association (AERA) and a Fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE). She is a past recipient of NCTE’s Rewey Belle Inglis Award for Outstanding Women in English Education, NCTE’s Advancement of People of Color Leadership Award, NCTE’s Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color fellowship, and, in addition to others, AERA’s Scholars of Color Early Career Award.
Saturday, February 5, 2022: Dr. Gholdy Muhammad
Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She studies Black historical excellence within educational communities with goals of reframing curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books, including Research in the Teaching of English, Urban Education, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Language Arts, and Written Communication. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award, the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year, the 2020 American Educational Research Association (AERA), Division K Early Career Award and the 2021 NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts. The United States Department of Education granted her $750,000 to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms. She brings expertise, having served as a middle school teacher, literacy specialist, school district administrator, and school board president. She is the author of the best-selling book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. She authored the book, Black girls’ literacies: An edited volume, published by Routledge. She works with teachers, leaders, parents, and youth across the United States and South Africa in best practices in culturally and historically responsive instruction. Her Historically Responsive Literacy/Culturally & Historically Responsive Education Model has been adopted across U.S. school districts, including Chicago and New York.
Sunday, February 6, 2022: Jamila Lyiscott & Keisha L. Green, Founding Co-Directors of the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Dr. Jamila Lyiscott a.k.a 'Dr. J' is an aspiring way-maker, community-engaged scholar, nationally renowned speaker, and the author of Black Appetite. White Food: Issues of Race, Voice, and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is the founding co-director of the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research. She also serves as a co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Equity & Excellence in Education. Her scholarship and activism work together to explore, assert, and defend the value of Black life throughout and beyond the field of education. Jamila’s current research focuses on the power of youth-led social research and activism to foster liberation and racial healing across schools and communities. Her scholarship has been published in several peer reviewed journals including, Review of Research in Education, Action Research, the Urban Review, and the New Educator, as well as several book chapters. She is most well known for being featured on Ted.com where her video, 3 Ways to Speak English, was viewed over 5 million times.
Dr. Jamila Lyiscott a.k.a 'Dr. J' is an aspiring way-maker, community-engaged scholar, nationally renowned speaker, and the author of Black Appetite. White Food: Issues of Race, Voice, and Justice Within and Beyond the Classroom. She serves as an Assistant Professor of Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is the founding co-director of the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research. She also serves as a co-Editor-in-Chief of the journal of Equity & Excellence in Education. Her scholarship and activism work together to explore, assert, and defend the value of Black life throughout and beyond the field of education. Jamila’s current research focuses on the power of youth-led social research and activism to foster liberation and racial healing across schools and communities. Her scholarship has been published in several peer reviewed journals including, Review of Research in Education, Action Research, the Urban Review, and the New Educator, as well as several book chapters. She is most well known for being featured on Ted.com where her video, 3 Ways to Speak English, was viewed over 5 million times.
Dr. Keisha L. Green, is a mama-scholar-activist and critical teacher educator with research interests in English Education, youth literacy practices, critical literacy, and critical pedagogy. She is published in journals including International Journal for Qualitative Studies; Equity & Excellence in Education; Race, Ethnicity, and Education; and Educational Forum. She has authored chapters in edited volumes including Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities and Youth Voices, Public Spaces, and Civic Engagement. Dr. Green currently serves as an Associate Professor of Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies at UMass Amherst College of Education, where she is the co-founder and co-director of the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research and co-editor of the acclaimed journal Equity & Excellence in Education. Dr. Green also serves as a consultant for area educational institutions supporting their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
- Olivia McNeill, Center of Racial Justice Anna Julia Cooper graduate fellow and co-facilitator of CRJ's Racial Healing Collective, is a teacher-learner, scholar, and birthworker, originally from North Carolina. She is currently a PhD student in social justice education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is paying close attention to political education and participatory action research in intergenerational communities. At UMass, Olivia is the Anna Julia Cooper graduate fellow in the Center of Racial Justice & Youth-Engaged research, where she co-facilitates the Racial Healing Collective.
- Yingyuan Sun, co-facilitator of Center of Racial Justice's Youth Board, is currently a Ph.D. student in Language, Literacy and Culture (LLC) at UMass Amherst College of Education, where she is focusing on multicultural education and sociocultural factors on second language acquisition. She is serves as the co-faciliator of the Youth Board at Center of Racial Justice & Youth-Engaged Research. Yingyuan has contributed to various research projects in the fields of language variation and change, intergenerational language shift, language decolonization, and language healing during the Covid-19 pandemic.