Sunday, March 1, 2020, 2pm
Racism without Racists: Educating Generations Past & Future
Presenters: Kabria Baumgartner, Mabelle Barnette, Liz Canada, Elizabeth Dubrulle
Location: Portsmouth Public Library, Levenson Room
From the moment a child is born, his or her education begins. As the child grows beliefs, cultural expectations and norms are reinforced by teachers, textbooks, and classmates. For students outside the dominant culture, this aspect of the educational system can pose significant challenges for once the brain has constructed a belief, it rationalizes it with explanations and thus becomes invested in the belief.
This panel will explore the historical challenges educational institutions have faced in dealing with diverse student groups and ways to create spaces for more parity and positive learning experiences for all.
Biographies
Kabria Baumgartner is an Associate professor of English and Women’s & Gender Studies at the University of New Hampshire. She specializes in nineteenth-century African American history and literature. Her first book, In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America (New York University Press, 2019), examines the history of school desegregation in the nineteenth-century Northeast by focusing on the experiences of African American girls and women. She is currently writing her second book, Bound To Service: Black Girls and Unfree Labor in the Shadow of Slavery, which explores the rise of indentured servitude in the Northeast and its impact on African American girls and women during the early national period. Kabria Baumgartner earned her Ph.D. in African-American/Black Studies at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.
Mabelle Barnette, an activist and social worker. has over 30 years of experience as a Protective Service Social Worker for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She has also served as the Information Coordinator for the Harriet Wilson Project. Barnette earned a BA degree in Public and Human Services from U Mass Boston and attended Simmons School of Social Work.
Liz Canada is the Director of Policy and Practice at Reaching Higher NH. Previously serving as the Director of Community Engagement, her work in education has taken her across the country to build family and community engagement initiatives to support student learning. Liz has also taught English and literature at the high school, community college, and four-year private university levels.
Liz received her Master of Arts in English at Seton Hall University and her Master of Education in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Elizabeth Dubrulle is the director of education and public programs at the New Hampshire Historical Society. She is also the director of the Democracy Project, the Society’s $1 million initiative to revitalize history and civics in New Hampshire’s elementary schools. The Society recently launched a new online statewide curriculum called “Moose on the Loose: Social Studies for Granite State Kids,” which is available at moose.nhhistory.org. The “Moose” is intended for upper elementary students (ages 8-12 years old). Elizabeth holds a master’s degree in American history from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has published numerous articles on New England history, as well as a book, Goffstown Reborn: Transformations of a New England Town (2009). She previously worked on the editorial staff of the Writings of Henry D. Thoreau and for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and taught in the humanities program at St. Anselm College.
