Lessons from Black Archaeology for Teacher Education
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This presentation makes self-excavation a powerful path to racial literacy—urging educators to dig deeper than surface knowledge and uncover the hidden assumptions and biases shaping their classrooms.
Lessons from Black Archaeology for Teacher Education, invites educators to consider what the practice of excavation can teach us about becoming more critically conscious teachers. Drawing from Black Archaeology, this presentation positions self-excavation as an essential practice of racial literacy, asking educators to dig beneath what they think they know to examine the assumptions and biases that inform their practice.
Speaker Bio
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. is a Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and the 2024 Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni Awardee from New York University. Her research, published in leading academic journals, centers on racial literacy and educational equity.
She is co-editor of five books, including All About Black Girl in Education: bell hooks and Pedagogies of Love (2024), and co-author of the multiple award-winning Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces (2021), where she introduces her Archaeology of Self® concept and Racial Literacy Development Model (RLDM). Her book, Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator’s Guide to Racial Literacy, was released by Routledge in Summer 2026.
For five consecutive years, Yolanda has been named an EdWeek EduScholar Influencer, recognizing her among the top 1% of education research scholars in the country. She is the founder of the Racial Literacy Project @TC and the Racial Literacy Roundtable Series, which for 19 years has convened scholars, educators, and students for critical dialogue on race and diversity.
Her work has been featured in the documentaries 2 Fists Up: We Gon’ Be Alright (2016) and Defining Us: Children at the Crossroads of Change (2022). She is also the author of two poetry collections, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems (2020) and The Peace Chronicles (2021) and is currently writing a third collection reflecting on her childhood in the South Bronx during the 1980s. In 2022, Yolanda delivered her TEDx Talk, Truth, Love & Racial Literacy, at the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaker Contact Info
- Instagram: @yolie_sealeyruiz
- Email: archofselfllc@gmail.com
- Website: www.yolandasealeyruiz.com
For any questions, please contact Artivism at artivism@adelphi.edu.