Blackademics TV

Dr. Javier Wallace presented a talk about Basketball trafficking in the United States. “How did we end up in a pro bono immigration lawyer’s rented office somewhere in Austin teetering between illegality and chasing a hoop dream? He came here to play basketball. He didn’t come here to be illegal. He came here to play basketball and improve his life.“ 📸

Our Executive Producer, Dr. Kevin Foster spoke on night two about the importance of mentorship outside of the classroom “As a faculty member, we want excellence in our students. We want students set up for success. We want to brag on them after they’ve graduated. If those are things we want, why would we not be proactive in supporting the spaces that that turn theory into practice, words into action, and book knowledge into mastery?”

Demographer Dr. Ricardo Lowe spoke on night one about the importance of accurate racial classification data for census reporting. 📸:

Blackademics Season Twelve Night One Presenter Brianna McBride

Blackademics Presenter Nodja Johnson: “The 90s were a cultural powerhouse, especially for black teenage girls like myself. They provided a platform for diverse voices, empowering individuals through lyrics that spoke to social issues, identity and resilience.”

As an equity practitioner, creative activist, and scholar, Virginia’s work sits at the intersection of community and storytelling. As a racial justice educator Virginia supports the development of a culture of inclusion and belonging for organizations based in the U.S., UK, Switzerland, and parts of Asia, working with clients such as Bumble, lululemon, Gensler, Vista Equity, The World Economic and many more within the tech, design, nonprofit and wellness sectors. She currently serves as CEO and Co-Founder of Rosa Rebellion, a platform for creative activism by and for women of color.

Virginia served as director of equity and community advocacy for The University of Texas at Austin's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement from 2016-2020, helping drive the university's vision to become less of an ivory tower, and more of a community anchor, addressing issues of access and equity. Given her commitment to disrupt systemic racism and build resources for inclusive practices, she's spoken around the world. In 2018 she co-authored the book "As We Saw It: The Story of Integration at The University of Texas at Austin."

She is the recipient of the 2016 Anti-Defamation League of Austin Social Justice Award, the 2018 Austin 40 Under 40 Award for Civics, Government and Public Affairs, the 2019 Girl Scouts Women of Distinction, and in 2021 was awarded the The University of Texas Outstanding Young Texas Exes award. She holds a B.A. in history from Williams College and a M.A. in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin.

Hello Blackademics Family!

Blackademics will be filming at the Texas Union Theater at the University of Texas at Austin campus on March 6th and 7th 2024. You can now RSVP at the link in our bio!

linktr.ee/blackademics

Dr. Ricardo Henrique Lowe, Jr. is a postdoctoral scholar in Race and Public Policy at the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis (IUPRA) at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a demographer, quantitative sociologist, and data scientist with six years of industry experience working as a survey statistician for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Census Bureau. His research focuses on racial politics in census taking, race and ethnic measurement in government statistics, and critical demography, with a regional focus on Latin American and the Caribbean. Dr. Lowe joined IUPRA as a research associate in Fall of 2019 prior to his postdoctoral appointment in Fall 2023.

He earned his MS in Applied Sociology and Social Statistics from Texas State University and his BA and PhD from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Sociology and Applied Demography, respectively.

Dr. Autumn Caviness is the Director of Real Talk, a BigFuture career and college exploration initiative at the College Board. Real Talk connects Black students and families with Black professionals and representatives from colleges and access organizations across the country. Dr. Caviness is a proud graduate of The University of Texas at Austin, where she received her PhD in Journalism and Master of Arts in Radio-Television-Film. Dr. Caviness also holds an MA and a BA in Communication from Texas A&M University. A self-proclaimed 90s R&B aficionado, Dr. Caviness is passionate about helping students discover and honor the college and career melody that resonates, within their hearts and their minds. Her story includes a phenomenal chapter at Austin’s only HBCU and first institution of higher learning, Huston-Tillotson University (HT) where she served as a Communication Professor, Director of the Center for Academic Excellence, Special Assistant to the President, and Director of Marketing and Public Relations.

During her HT tenure, Dr. Caviness was honored as Faculty Member of the Year for her work as a Communication Professor in the Adult Degree Program; founded hackathon, the first youth and diversity annual hackathon, 100% organized and operated by students of color; designated as Faculty Lead for HT’s summer immersion experience at Heilongjiang University in Harbin, China; named a “Top 10 Black Innovator” by NBCBLK and SXSW; and hosted the weekly “HT fRAMily Affair” on KAZI 88.7 FM, the oldest community radio station in Austin. Dr. Caviness is a member of the illustrious Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., UT’s Friar Society, the National Association of Black Journalists, and is an inaugural Board Member for the Austin Area Urban League, Tech & Career Academy. Dr. Caviness adores creating compelling content that educates while entertains and is an ardent believer that the 1994-1995 Orlando Magic remain one of the greatest NBA squads of all time!

Dr. Devin Walker currently serves as the Director of Equity and Student Success at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California. Originally from Los Angeles, California, Devin earned his undergraduate degree in 2008 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “Go Badgers,” where he majored in Sociology and History. He earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at The University of Texas at Austin in 2018 where his research focused on the intersection of race, sports and education as well as the influence of global education on student’s self-concept, national identity and future orientation. Prior to leaving Texas in 2023, he served as the director of two high-impact centers for the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at UT-Austin: The Heman Sweatt Center for Black Males as well as Global Leadership and Social Impact.

Dr. Walker credits his diverse upbringing in Los Angeles as well as his extensive experience living, working, and backpacking abroad as pillars to his professional trajectory. He taught English in Korea for 2 years, has lived in 5 countries, has traveled to 37 countries and has led over 500 students on study abroad programs to China, South Africa, the UAE, Ghana and Senegal. His recently published book, Historically Underrepresented Faculty and Students in Education Abroad: Wandering Where We Belong, aims to disrupt the deficit-based narratives that often surround students of color and instead offers a roadmap for how institutions can effectively engage all students in education abroad. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is a co-founder of the Black Student-Athlete Summit and the founder and CEO of World Walker, an organization focused on providing transformational education abroad opportunities for Black students.

Armin is a first-generation attorney and the Executive Director of the Youth Justice Alliance. During his final semester in law school, Armin served as a law instructor at a local high school where he inspired students to dream of legal careers.

That experience transitioned into work as a full-time law teacher and mentor for aspiring attorneys from underrepresented communities. After establishing the first high school legal aid clinic in the country in Southeast Austin, Armin received the Rather Prize for Education Innovation (2019), was named the Austin ISD High School Teacher of the Year (2020), and Texas Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year (2021).

After completing his Master of Education Policy from Harvard (2021), Armin established the Youth Justice Alliance which provides fellowships for aspiring first-generation lawyers that offer financial and institutional support from high school all the way to law school.

Dr. M. Yvonne Taylor is an intersectional feminist, critical organizational scholar, ethnographer, and educator. Currently a lecturer at Rice University's business school teaching communication, she also functions as an anthropologist within higher education who studies historically White institutions of higher education as workplaces that replicate race-gender inequities.

Her dissertation, a critical ethnographic case study, identifies a group of professional staff who are not typically centered, women knowledge workers (those in communication, development, IT, and other “business” functions) and explores the raced-gendered organizational structures that influenced their attrition during the Great Resignation.

In July of 2022, it was featured on NPR's inaugural Mind of Texas broadcast. In 2022, it was featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education's blog on race in higher education. Her most recent published research examines the tension between the promotion and tenure process and public scholarship, as well as that tension’s effect on faculty with marginalized identities.

Through her consulting firm, Equity Within, she facilitates the co-creation of equitable education, ed-tech, nonprofit organizations, and equitable instructional design.

Her social media handles are:

Twitter:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/yvonnewrites
Instagram:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yvonnewrites/

Dr. Taylor will be launching a podcast called Rejuvenat_Ed and a series of short courses in summer 2024. Information can be found at her website, equitywithin.com and on her social media channels.