TANISHIA LAVETTE WILLIAMS, Ph.D. 

KAY FELLOW IN RACIAL JUSTICE, EDUCATION, AND THE CARCERAL STATE

SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

NEW CROSS-LISTED COURSE: ED 172A CRITICAL RACE THEORY AND EDUCATION

Specializing in urban politics at the intersection of race, gender, and class, Tanishia Lavette Williams obtained a Ph.D. from the Public and Urban Policy program at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School. Broadly, Tanishia’s research examines curriculum adoption (namely Culturally Responsive Pedagogy), policy, and educational disparities with a focus on the achievement and life outcomes of Black students. Based on her experience as a superintendent, executive director, principal, and teacher in school systems undergoing extensive reform, Tanishia’s focus on education aims to connect praxis and theory. Her contributions to school-based pedagogues and contemporary literature leverage the historicity of race relations within the law to modern policy and infrastructures that impact public education. In essence, Tanishia’s scholarship examines how racism permeates systems through existing legal structures that buttress the subordination of minorities through racialized hierarchies. Her multi-sited research exposes the varied tensions, contradictions, inclusions, and exclusions that co-exist in public education, focusing on a specific anti-racist intervention meant to increase student achievement among the marginalized. Tanishia’s broader research goals aim to advance the literature at the intersections of education, racial stratification, and policy. Her current public scholarship includes a variety of presentations, talks, and speeches that analyze the role of race in disparate outcomes for people of color.