Associate Professor

About

  • Office Hours:

    M 12:30-1:30 in 215 Eddy, W12:30-1:30 in B/AACC

  • Role:

    Faculty

  • Position:

    • Associate Professor

  • Concentration:

    • African American Studies

  • Department:

    • Ethnic Studies

  • Education:

    • Ph.D. University of Chicago, B.A. California State University, Sacramento

Biography

Dr. Ray Black is an assistant professor of ethnic studies focusing on African American studies. His primary academic focus is on how current students of color, from early childhood through graduate school, succeed. His secondary scholarly focus is on representations of Black life in the slave narratives and other nineteenth century documents, and how these depictions conceal various modes of survival through literary irony and the folkloric trickster. Dr. Black has taught early childhood education (Head Start), has been the coordinator for a non-profit program seeking to keep young men of color in high school, and led campaigns for reform minded school board candidates. He applies these interests and experiences in mentoring current and former students.

Publications

Black, R. (2004). Where Did We Go Wrong?: Bill Cosby and the Anxiety of Communal Responsibility. The Black Scholar, 34(4), 16–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41069101

Black, R. (2015). BLACK ETHNICS: Race, Immigration, and the Pursuit of the American Dream by Christina M. Greer. American Studies, 54(1), 135–137. https://doi.org/10.1353/ams.2015.0004

Black, R., & Bimper, A. Y. (2017). Successful Undergraduate African American Men’s Navigation and Negotiation of Academic and Social Counter-Spaces as Adaptation to Racism at Historically White Institutions. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice, 152102511774720. https://doi.org/10.1177/1521025117747209

Black, R. (2018). “What Is Said Here”: Reflections on an Informal Community for Black Men at an Historically White Institution. About Campus, 22(6), 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1002/abc.21308

Kim, J. K., Basile, V., Jaime-Diaz, J., & Black, R. (2018). Internal Orientalism and multicultural acts: The challenges of multicultural education in Korea. Multicultural Education Review, 0(0), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/2005615X.2018.1423540

Ferrell, A. L., & Black, R. (2019). Of the Coming of John: A Contemporary Counter-Story of Race and Gifted Education. Urban Education, 0042085919842628. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085919842628

Basile, V., York, A., & Black, R. (2019). Who Is the One Being Disrespectful? Understanding and Deconstructing the Criminalization of Elementary School Boys of Color. Urban Education, 004208591984262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085919842627

First Generation Story

I left home with a one-way plane ticket, a duffel bag, radio, and about twenty dollars. I earned my bachelor's degree in English twenty years later after having gone through several community colleges and universities. My experience spans dropping out because of grades, not having the funds to continue, having incompetent advice as well as being awarded scholarships, being invited to particiapte in academic programs and being mentored by scholars who saw my future instead of my past. My research, teaching and mentorship attempts to honor and follow in the footsteps of those who saw me as a success.

Courses

  • ETST/HIST 250 – African American History

  • ETST 330 – African American Resistance and Self-Creation

  • ETST 555 – African American Intellectual Thought

  • ETST 354 – Black Cinema and Media

  • ETST 310 – African American Studies