Aja Denise Reynolds

Assistant Professor of Urban Education and Critical Race Studies

Office Hours:

229 Education Bldg.

Aja Denise Reynolds

Biography

Aja D. Reynolds, is an Assistant Professor in the Teacher Education Department. She received her doctorate degree in the Educational Policy Studies- Social Foundations program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her scholarly work has focused on her collaborative work in creating ‘fugitive’ or freedom spaces with Black girls through the use of art, activism and healing as she explores the geographies of Black girlhood. Her dissertation is titled “Ain’t Nobody Checking for Us: Race, Fugitivity and the Urban Geographies of Black Girlhood”. Aja has over 12 years of experience as an educator/youth worker. Her research examines Black girlhood identities and geographies in the neoliberal -carceral state to explore liberatory praxis. She is part of national education organizations, including the Education for Liberation Network, in which she organizes with teachers, youth and community organizations to develop more equitable educational structures for marginalized youth.

Aja is excited about continuing her work with educators and communities in sustaining freedom schooling for Black youth and those from other marginalized communities, and supporting pathways to increase Black and Brown teachers in PreK- 12 schools.

Area of Expertise

Black girlhood~ Youth Development ~ Critical Pedagogy

Featured publications

Licensing whiteness: property, privilege, and (re)centering the politics of race within neoliberalism

Crowley, C. B., Powell, S., Reynolds, A., & Yu, M. (2024). Licensing whiteness: property, privilege, and (re)centering the politics of race within neoliberalism. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Critical race theory ought to be central to analyses of neoliberalism and its impact on contemporary educational landscapes in the United States. Neoliberalism finds grounding in the rule of law, particularly as it relates to the role of contracts, contractual relationships, and by extension forms of licensure. Parallel to this, critical race theory also finds conceptual grounding in law, most notably as it pertains to understandings of linkages between property rights and whiteness. We explore the implications of considering whiteness as an institutionally-sponsored, state-sanctioned form of licensed property. The identification of neoliberalism as a dominant form of institutionalized whiteness centers understandings of the racialized contractual terms operating discursively under the auspices of white supremacist neoliberal regimes. Though Brown v. Board of Education (1954) overturned the “separate but equal” principle in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), we argue that neoliberalism continues to operationalize the maintenance of racial inequity in US schooling.

College of Education College of Education

Aja Denise Reynolds

Aja Denise Reynolds

Biography

Area of Expertise

Featured publications

Licensing whiteness: property, privilege, and (re)centering the politics of race within neoliberalism

Publications

Courses taught by Aja Denise Reynolds

Winter Term 2024

Fall Term 2023

Winter Term 2023

Fall Term 2022

Winter Term 2022

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