Learning Sciences Lunch and Learn with Dr. Shamari Reid: “From Octavia to Cherry: Queer of Color Critique, Ballroom Culture, and Black LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum”
Connect with colleagues during this virtual presentation at the GSE (Room 124). Pizza will be provided! Can’t attend in person? Join us remotely via Zoom!
“This world is for me too, honey”- Octavia St. Laurent
“If only my teachers learned from ballroom, school and the world would be more human- Cherry
Recognizing the negative schooling experiences of Black LGBTQ+ youth, the fact that informal LGBTQ+ curriculum often centers whiteness, and the lack of clarity around what constitutes formal LGBTQ+ inclusive curricula, in this talk I draw on Queer of Color Critique (QOCC) to present an approach to designing K-12 inclusive curriculum that affirms, celebrates, and reflects the lived experiences of Black LGBTQ+ youth. In addition, I offer curricular examples from ballroom culture to illustrate how curriculum that is grounded in QOCC can resist reproducing inclusive curriculum that centers whiteness and damage-centered narratives of LGBTQ+ individuals. Lastly, I will invite all present to discuss the limitations of single-identity approaches to educational justice.
Suggested Readings:
• Reid, S. (2022). Using a queer of color critique to work toward a Black LGBTQ+ inclusive K-12 curriculum. Curriculum Inquiry.
• Reid, S. (2022). Exploring the agency of Black LGBTQ+ youth in schools and NYC’S Ballroom Culture. Teachers College Record, 124 (6), 92-117.
Dr. Shamari Reid (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University. As a scholar, Dr. Reid’s work explores how Black trans and queer youth and their communities sustain themselves amidst oppression, as well as how we can collaborate with these communities to better transform schools into sites of equitable opportunities for Black LGBTQ+ youth. In addition to working with Black LGBTQ+ communities to reimagine schools, Dr. Reid’s work examines radical love as a moral imperative in social justice education, and as a path toward culturally
sustaining school communities.