Sankofa Graduate
Student Conference
The deadline to submit proposals is February 1, 2025, by 11:59 PM EST.
Centering Black Children in Education invites conference proposals from current graduate students to present at the inaugural Sankofa Graduate Research Conference!
The conference will be held for FREE and virtually on:
Friday, February 21, 2025
11:00AM EST - 7PM EST
This intensive is designed to provide doctoral students with a dedicated week to focus on developing the foundational chapters of their dissertation prospectus, proposal, and dissertation project. Through structured writing sessions, presentations, coaching from researchers and faculty, personalized feedback, and peer support, participants will make significant progress toward completing the first three (3) chapters of their dissertation projects.
Application Deadline:
Applications are due February 1, 2025. Acceptance notifications will be sent during the first week of February 2025. Emailed applications will not be accepted.
Program Fees:
To hold their spots, participants must pay their registration deposit by the appropriate deadlines.
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The early registration fee is $800 before February 14, 2025.
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The late registration fee is $1100 after February 14, 2025.
To hold your spot, all registration deposits must be received by March 1, 2025. Failure to pay the registration deposit will void your participation in the Sankofa Research Intensive.
RESEARCH INTENSIVE
DR. ED
BROCKENBROUGH
Title: A Pedagogy of the Closet
Description: How can educators create supportive classroom environments for Black queer youth amidst the intensified surveillance of race and queerness in schools? Drawing on a conceptualization of the closet as shifting degrees of queer visibility and invisibility, I pose a pedagogy of the closet as a possible set of maneuvers for discreetly and strategically delivering queer-inclusive curricula in secondary schools to Black queer youth and other LGBTQ+ students. Beyond symbolizing the site of queer secrecy and despair, the closet, I contend, may afford varying levels of student exposure to queer content while providing some cover for teachers from political and professional backlash. This presentation will define a pedagogy of the closet and offer examples of its implementation.
JANUARY 22, 2025
2025 Conference
This is our 5th year anniversary! 2025 marks our 5th time offering a FREE, virtual conference for folks around the globe to come together and celebrate the power and potential of Black children. This is our 5th opportunity to identify the ways Black folks show up brilliant, buoyant, and bountiful, ready to teach and learn in schools not prepared to see, serve, and secure us. This is our 5th mix, calling out all the ways schooling spaces are not like us.
Sometimes you gotta
pop out & show 'em!
The Michigan Department of Education's efforts to support African American students began in 2015 with the creation of the African American Young Men of Promise Initiative (AAYMPI). In 2017, the Initiative expanded to include the support for young Black men and women in Michigan schools through the African American Student Initiative (AASI). To date, the AASI is the only State-level Initiative to reach classrooms and has engaged with over 1,500 Michigan educators.
Each year the Initiative is designed to take educators on a journey that focuses on personal and professional transformation by providing the brave space to reflect and dialogue about topics that are central to our collective humanity. Together educators engage in learning that explores facets of their cultural selves and the intersection of their multiple identities. Additionally, the Initiative equips educators to examine and interrogate individual and collective values and beliefs to eliminate marginalization, disparities, and disproportionality within Michigan schools. Integrating knowledge, skills, and behaviors that systemically eradicate racism and advance diversity, justice, equity, and inclusion is the core of this Initiative.