They "Understood the Assignment": A Reflection on Black Excellence

Zoom link:
z.umn.edu/TheyUnderstoodTheAssignment

In this lecture, Dr. Lori Patton Davis offers a critical reflection on individuals who -- through their activism, voice, and intersectional approaches -- embody the spirit and meaning of Black Excellence. She will highlight some of the unique barriers and structures designed to deny Black Excellence and the strategies used to disrupt them. She will also offer an opportunity for audience members to not only think more deeply about Black History Month, but also to consider how every person, regardless of race, has a stake in the “assignment” undergirding this annual celebration.

About the Speaker

Lori Patton Davis is the department chair of Educational Studies and professor of higher education and student affairs at The Ohio State University. Lori is best known for important cross-cutting scholarship on African Americans in higher education, critical race theory, campus diversity initiatives on college campuses, girls and women of color in educational and social contexts, and college student development and graduate preparation. She has authored of over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and other academic publications appearing in highly regarded venues. She has received many national awards for her scholarly contributions, including being ranked among the top 200 educators in the US. She is a frequently sought-after expert on a wide range of education topics. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Huffington Post, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, and dozens of other media outlets have quoted Lori and featured her research. She has also advised university presidents and other senior administrators, philanthropic foundation executives, culture center directors, and educators in urban K-12 schools. In 2018, she served as president of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the first Black woman to hold this elected position. She continues to provide leadership and service in education.

Current Work:

Lori Patton Davis’ broader research agenda emphasizes diversity, equity, and social justice in the following areas: (1) African Americans in P-20 education and intersections of identity, oppression, and racial injustice, particularly as they affect Black women and girls, (2) Campus diversity initiatives, specifically campus culture centers, and their role and influence at predominantly White institutions (PWIs), (3) Critical race theory (CRT) and its application to postsecondary contexts to inform research, policy, and practice, and (4) Graduate education and preparation within in higher education and student affairs.

Her co-edited book, Critical Perspectives on Black Women and College Success, was the first of its kind to specifically emphasize Black women undergraduates within the field of higher education. To expand this body of work, she co-edited two journal special issues. The first was a collaborative project for the Journal of Negro Education, titled, “Why We Can’t Wait: (Re)Examining the Opportunities and Challenges for Black Women and Girls in Education,” which commemorated the 15-year anniversary of the Journal’s “Black Women in the Academy” special issue. The second was a NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education co-edited special issue titled, “Centering the Diverse Experiences of Black Women Undergraduates.”

Currently, she is co-editing a book, Investing in the Educational Success of Black Women and Girls, which will be published with Stylus Press. Her scholarship in this area was recognized with the ACPA-College Educators-International Commission for Women’s Identities Research Award. She is also engaged in research that centers the educational experiences of Black children in St. Louis, MO. The study, Policy Meets Urban Schooling: Black High School Students Educational Pathways Under the Missouri Transfer Law, is funded in part by the Spencer Foundation. She is exploring the implementation of the Missouri Transfer Law (MTL) and how it affected the educational pathways of Black students in North St. Louis. She explores how a seemingly innocuous education policy led to the near dismantling of high schools populated by racially, socially, and economically disadvantaged students.

Lori Patton Davis is the most well-known researcher and scholar in the area of campus culture centers. She wrote the first dissertation that underscored the significant contributions of Black culture centers and later edited Campus Culture Centers in Higher Education, the first and only book to highlight various types of racial/ethnic culture centers in higher education, their continued relevance, and implications for their existence in relation to student retention and success. In addition to extensive work on culture centers, the broader context of her scholarship also encompasses the role of language in shaping institutional policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as, the role of racial literacy in disrupting white institutional presence.

Most notably, she was awarded a grant from the Lumina Foundation Racial Justice and Equity Fund to study white racial literacy within the context of a predominantly white urban campus setting. The White Racial Literacy Project was designed to more purposefully engage white students, faculty, and staff in conversations about the role of race in shaping campus environments.

Her scholarship has also been widely adopted in higher education programs across the country. The most notable contribution is her co-authored book, Student Development in College (2nd and 3rd editions). This text, among the highest selling student affairs title within the Jossey-Bass collection, will continue to shift how student development theory is taught in higher education and student affairs programs. This 3rd edition was purposefully designed to address development, students’ social identities, and the confluence of power, privilege, and intersectionality by incorporating CRT and other critical frameworks. The book is a major contributor in terms of capturing students’ developmental experiences in ways that explicitly acknowledge diverse identities and structural oppression.

Event Sponsors

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Program
CLA Undergraduate Education
CLA President's Emerging Scholars Program
CLA Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
CLA Office of Student Experience
Office of Undergraduate Education Student Success