A Conversation With Jarvis Givens, Ph.D. presented by the Black Education Research Center (BERC) and the History and Education Program at Teachers College

On February 23rd, the Black Education Research Center (BERC) and History and Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, will co-host a conversation with Dr. Jarvis Givens, Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and faculty affiliate in the department of African & African American Studies at Harvard University, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York, NY. 

Sonya Douglass, Professor at Teachers College and Director of BERC, will engage Dr. Givens in discussion about his new book, School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness (Beacon Press, 2023), which offers a powerful counter-narrative to historical scripts that frame Black students as a problem to be solved in America’s public imagination. Using more than 100 first-person student narratives in African American history, including intellectual and political powerhouses like Mary McLeod Bethune, Zora Neale Hurston, and Malcolm X, Dr. Givens reveals a story of African American youth learning to battle the violent condemnation of Black life and imposed miseducation meant to quell their resistance.

The scholars will also explore the field of Black education studies, current educational issues, and their implications for the future of American education.