April Baker-Bell

Guest Speaker

Dr. April Baker-Bell is an award-winning
transdisciplinary teacher-researcher-activist and associate professor of
language, literacy, and English education in the Department of English
and Department of African American and African Studies at Michigan State
University. Baker-Bell is an international leader in conversations on
Black Language education, and her research interrogates the
intersections of Black Language and literacies, anti-Black racism, and
antiracist pedagogies. Her award-winning book, Linguistic Justice:
BlackLanguage, Literacy, Identity, and Pedagogy, brings together theory,
research, and practice to dismantle Anti-Black Linguistic Racism (a
term

Baker-Bell coined) and white linguistic supremacy. Baker-Bell
is the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the 2021
Coalition for Community Writing Outstanding Book Award, the 2021 Andrew
W. Mellon Foundation’s New Directions Fellowship, the 2021 Michigan
State University’s Community Engagement Scholarship Award and the 2021
Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Creative Activity,
the 2020 NCTE George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to
Honesty and Clarity in Public Language, the 2020 Theory Into Practice
Article of the Year Award, the 2019 Michigan State University Alumni
Award for Innovation & Leadership in Teaching and Learning, and the
2018 AERA Language and Social Processes Early Career Scholar Award.