Colloquium series: Toward a Liberatory Theory and Praxis
Disturbing the Paradox of Academic Impact: Ruminations of a Black Mother-Bridge-Interrupter-Scholar
Dr. Dawn Demps
In this moment of social angst, oppression, and change-what is the societal role of the scholar? Intellectuals like WEB DuBois and Edward Said have long pondered this question. Institutions of higher learning attract and recruit arguably some of the greatest minds from communities. Yet, inherent policies and practices endemic to the academy often discourage scholars’ sustained home community engagement as barriers to the higher goals of the academy at best and cursory pastimes at worst. Terms like “activist-scholar” seek to more fully capture the change-work of academics operating from inside the ivory tower. Yet, does the embrace of such jargon represent true communal contributions and collaborations or serve as a salve for institutional control and complicit silence? This talk will encourage listeners to position the requirements of the academy aside the requirements of societal change to ask "Can the work of the academy as it is currently practiced create real impact that matters in communities?"
Dr. Dawn Demps is an assistant professor of educational policy studies and practice at University of Arizona’s School of Education. She holds an MA in Social Justice Studies from Marygrove College in Detroit, MI and received her PhD from Arizona State University in Education Policy and Evaluation. A Flint, Michigan native, Dr. Demps has been involved with community advocacy and organizing for over 25 years. She utilizes her own lived experiences to connect with students and parents to promote tools for self-advocacy, structural reforms and strives to champion the concerns of these populations.