Noliwe Rooks

Keynote Speaker

Noliwe Rooks, PhD, is the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor at Cornell University where she directs the American Studies program and is a professor in the Africana Studies department. An interdisciplinary scholar whose research on race, racism, inequality, education and gender in the United States engages scholarship from legal studies, media studies, sociology, political science and history. She is the author of four books, editor of four collections, and a writer whose research and writing has appeared in popular media such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME magazine, and media outlets such as Democracy Now and various NPR programs. Rooks has broad knowledge about the making and unmaking of American public education, and her current research is on school choice initiatives, integration, segregation, and online and philanthropic support and funding for schools. The recipient of research awards from the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Mellon Foundation funded Humanities Collective, she is consistently moved by the hope and promise of the inspired individuals and powerful movements fighting to save education—and possibly the nation in the process.

Additional Resources

Articles

-HBCU Graduates Are Finally Getting the Recognition We Deserve

-How “segrenomics” underpins the movement to privatize public education

Books

Cutting School: The Segrenomics of American Education

Video