Fresh Ayers: On "Education at War"

Tracy Lachica Buenavista, Arshad I. Ali, David Stovall, Shirin Vossoughi, and Bill Ayers join us to discuss Education at War: The Fight for Students of Color in America’s Public Schools. A Q&A and signing will follow the discussion.

Presented in partnership with the Chicago Teacher's Union

At the Co-op

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About the book: This thought-provoking collection of essays reveals how the contemporary specter of war has become a central way that racism and materialism are manifested and practiced within education. Education at War asserts that the contemporary neoliberal characterization of education and school-based reform is situated within the global political economy that has facilitated growth in the prison and military industrial complex, and simultaneous divestment from education domestically. Essays examine anti-war projects across the K–20 education continuum with chapters from educators who are from and/or work directly with the communities often pathologized in “damage-centered” educational discourse. The authors do not just frame the conditions faced by our communities as state-mediated but also as collectively resisted. 

About the editors: Tracy Lachica Buenavista is Professor of Asian American Studies at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). She is also co-principal investigator for the CSUN EOP Dreamers, Resources, Empowerment, Advocacy, and Mentorship (DREAM) Center, among the first undocumented student resource projects in the California State University system. She has published articles on U.S. Pilipina/o college access and retention, undocumented Asian student experiences, and the militarization of immigration reform in various journals including AAPI Nexus, Amerasia, Asian American Policy Review, and Race Ethnicity and Education. She has also contributed to several book projects focused on Asian American and Pilipina/o American educational experiences, and co-edited with her colleagues, Education at War!: The Fight for Students of Color in America’s Public Schools.

Arshad I. Ali is assistant professor of Educational Research at the George Washington University. He earned a masters degree at Harvard University and a doctorate at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Columbia University and University College London. Dr. Ali is an interdisciplinary scholar who studies youth culture, race, identity, and political engagement in the lives of young people. Dr. Ali is co editor of the forthcoming volume Education at War: The Fight for Students of Color in America's Public Schools (Fordham University Press), as well as numerous research articles on Muslim youth identities and politics.

About the contributors: David Stovall, Ph.D. is Professor of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). His scholarship investigates four areas 1) Critical Race Theory, 2) the relationship between housing and education, and 3) the intersection of race, place and school. In the attempt to bring theory to action, he works with community organizations and schools to develop curriculum that address issues of equity and justice.

Shirin Vossoughi is an assistant professor of Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, where she draws on ethnographic and interactional methods to study the social, cultural, historical, political and ethical dimensions of learning. Vossoughi’s research centers on hybrid learning environments that blend formal and informal elements and support young people to engage in sophisticated forms of disciplinary thinking while questioning and expanding disciplinary boundaries.

About the interlocutor: Bill Ayers is a social justice activist, teacher, Distinguished Professor of Education (retired) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and author of two memoirs, Fugitive Days and Public Enemy.