UW–Madison’s Kevin Henry has been awarded a Theories of Blackness, Indigeneity, and Racialization in Research to Reduce Inequality in the Lives of Young People Writing Fellowship from the William T. Grant Foundation.
Henry is an assistant professor in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
The fellowship is a new, one-time initiative spearheaded by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, and is devoted to scholars from various disciplines and scholarly traditions whose research aims to reduce inequity in education and broader contexts. As an outcome of this year-long fellowship, the William T. Grant Foundation will publish two edited volumes featuring fellows’ original scholarship.
Henry’s proposal explored his engagement with Black studies and its shaping of his research on and experience with post-Katrina education reforms. The proposal was accepted for a cross-disciplinary volume, set across several social sciences, by authors telling the story of how they have come to meaningfully theorize Blackness, Indigeneity, and racialization in their research to reduce inequality in the lives of young people.
As a fellow, Henry will be awarded a stipend of $2,000, and will receive writing support and editorial feedback, participate in a writing workshop, and present portions of his chapter in a webinar series.
“I am thrilled to be a William T. Grant Foundation Writing Fellow and to be a part of a collective of scholars thinking, writing, and striving to address and dismantle systemic racism in education and beyond,” said Henry. “Moreover, I am excited to contribute to an edited volume that will allow scholars to unpack and explore the theoretical/conceptual skeleton that resides beneath the body of our work.”
Henry added: “For me, this writing fellowship is an opportunity to explore the necessary and often unarticulated role of theory in research and our everyday lives, of how theory maybe be used to illuminate and challenge inequity and stratification, and how theory can be a means toward liberation.”
Learn more about the William T. Grant Foundation Writing Fellowship.