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avatar for Jamila Lyiscott

Jamila Lyiscott

University of Massachusetts–Amherst and Teachers College, Columbia University’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education
Jamila Lyiscott is a social justice education scholar, nationally renowned speaker, spoken word artist, and educational consultant. She was recently appointed as an Assistant Professor of Social Justice Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Senior Research Fellow of Teachers College, Columbia University’s Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME). Across these spaces, Jamila's work focuses on racial justice, community engagement, and youth activism in education through the lens of what she has termed, "Vision-Driven Justice." She has been invited to over 100 institutions throughout the nation where she works with youth, educators, and people across disciplines to inspire vision and action. Jamila is also the founder and co-director of the Cyphers For Justice (CFJ) youth, research, and advocacy program, apprenticing NYC High School youth, incarcerated youth, and educators as critical social researchers through hip-hop, spoken word, and digital literacy.

Jamila is most well know for being featured on Ted.com where her video, “3 Ways to Speak English,” was viewed over 4 million times. She has also been featured in Spike Lee’s “2 Fists Up,” on NPR, Huffington Post, Lexus Verses and Flow, Upworthy, The Root, and many other media outlets nationally and internationally. Her poetry and scholarly work have been published in several peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

Jamila is the recent co-grantee of a Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad Award, which will take her to Ghana in the Summer of 2018. She is currently preparing a book manuscript about her work within Predominantly White Institutions across the nation, helping educators to confront white privilege within and beyond the classroom. Through her community, scholastic, and artistic efforts, Jamila hopes to powerfully explore, assert, and defend the value of Black lives throughout the world.

My Speakers Sessions

Tuesday, March 26
 

8:00am EDT