2024 R.W.B. Jackson Lecture – OISE

Please join us for OISE’s annual R.W.B. Jackson Lecture on April 17. 

Jarvis R. Givens, a distinguished Professor of Education and African and African American Studies at Harvard University, is this year’s guest and will deliver the talk, “Black Reconstructions: Race, Educational History, and the Problem of the Archive.”

As an interdisciplinary historian, Professor Givens’ research falls at the intersection of the history of American education, 19th and 20th century African American history, and critical theories of race and schooling. 

His emerging research is developing in two distinct directions. The first centers on interrogating silences in the archives of Black educational history and exploring possibilities for expanding this archive by building on new approaches in digital humanities. Secondly, he is exploring lessons to be gleaned from the history of Black teacher associations in support of contemporary efforts to recruit and retain African American educators.

Givens’ work explores themes of education, power, and resistance contextually, beyond rigid frames that limit where we look for meaningful experiences of teaching and learning. His work is committed to clarifying how persecution has impacted the lives of black people (and other oppressed communities) in school and society, while also attending to how these communities have used education and culture, subversively, to seek out lives that transcend their suffering.

The reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed by Professor Given’s lecture at 6:30 p.m., and a closing Q&A. 

Don’t miss what promises to be an inspired and stimulating evening.