I am a retired Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. My research on the political consequences of capitalist development in nineteenth century France has been published in numerous articles and two books, Class, Politics and Early Industrial Capitalism and Ballots and Barricades. I also co-edited books on the sociology of higher education (The Social Worlds of Higher Education) and on social movements and protest (Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics). My work has explored nation-building, citizenship, and the politics of exclusion in East Africa (Race, Nation, and Citizenship in Post-Colonial Africa: The Case of Tanzania) as well as current debates over agricultural development in Africa.

I've been working since 1995 with the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change and the College of Liberal Arts to help develop partnerships between the University of Minnesota and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. In 2017, I received the Lillian H. Williams award from the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity for my leadership of the Sociology Department’s Equity & Diversity Committee. During my decades of teaching, I worked with many Twin Cities community organizations to provide community-service learning opportunities for my students and in 2012, I received the Minnesota Campus Compact President’s Civic Engagement Steward Award. I've served on the Board of Directors of non-profit organizations committed to improving educational opportunities in Africa, including Books for Africa and Project Zawadi.

I am currently working on a number of projects: a history of educational segregation, desegregation, and resegregation in the Midwest; a history of the “achievement gap”; and a co-authored book on the civil rights and black power movements. My first book, Race, Social Science, and the Crisis of Manhood, 1890-1970, is an intellectual history of black manhood and masculinity through the lens of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century American social science.

I teach courses in African American, United States, gender and intellectual history and was recently awarded the Horace T. Morse - Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.

Before joining the history department, I worked at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a non-profit, think tank in Washington, DC., where I analyzed contemporary economic, educational, and health issues affecting African Americans.

I’m a first-generation student (the first in my family to go beyond the 6th grade) from a Maya community called Tahmek (Place of the big hug) in Yucatan Mexico. After finishing my degree in Anthropology in Yucatan, I moved to Minnesota where I started my graduate studies in 2014. I’m a Ph.D. candidate in History with a double minor in Human Rights and Development Studies and Social Change. My research focuses on the use of Human Rights in Mayan communities and women's organizations and activism in Guatemala and El Salvador since the 1960s. I study how local indigenous and women's organizations use the teachings of the catholic movement called liberation theology to fight for social justice, dignity, and equality. Over the past 7 years I have been working on promoting diversity initiatives that guarantee the success of underrepresented communities in higher education. The ICW goals and current projects advocate for a long-term partnership that would support underrepresented students to succeed in graduate school at the University of Minnesota.

Andrea Manolov (she/her) is exploring radical modes of writing histories and visioning futures. Andrea's practice brings together her energy as a supporter, organizer, and innovator with skills in research, exhibition creation, and arts programming. Her public history work includes the Interstate Digital Archive at Mixed Blood Theatre, a place-based archive of queer and trans Asian American space-making, and event coordination for Climates of Inequality, a multi-sited national project of the Humanities Action Lab. In 2020, she was the co-creative director of History for the Future, a workshop series and public exhibition on the history of mutual aid in the Twin Cities. Andrea graduated with a Masters in Heritage Studies and Public History at the University of Minnesota. She currently designs and produces multi-media digital resources for Minnesota Transform, a Just Futures Mellon Foundation higher education initiative.

The democracy we were taught in schools was nothing but a masked agenda that benefited a select few and yet is nothing but a mirage to colored people. America’s race war and political war affects me and affects every single minority in the U.S. I am here to educate myself on America’s deeply rooted systemic racism that denied my people and myself the right to breathe let alone be able to walk on the streets safely. I am here to educate my people on what it means to be colored in America. ICW, I believe, is a platform that unites people and educates them on the reality of our democracy and the struggles people of color live through on a daily basis. Through unity and through our voices, we will be pushing for reform that will not only bring justice for our generation but for our children and generations to come.

Our existing system of government was founded on the subjugation of people of color and minorities. The current climate identifies some of the problems that need to be eradicated so we can approach a truly equal and equitable society. Prior to making changes, we have to understand what is happening, which can only happen if we listen to those who know what they are talking about. The ICW brings together scholars who can share information that will educate the society at large and create change and I am thrilled to be able to participate and learn alongside an awesome team. I want to learn and help however possible.

I am a fourth year Ph.D. candidate and my research focuses on understanding how teachers enact whiteness and the ways that those enactments uphold and/or dismantle systemic racism in education. The ICW teach-in project presents an opportunity for me to put my research into action, collaborate with scholars who work on racial equity, and learn from my colleagues and other activists. I really like the collaborative nature of the ICW, as I believe it’s important for the academic community to work with a variety of groups to enact change.

We are a team of nine people; two faculty members, two graduate students, and five undergraduate students all driven for radical change. The work of ICW is working towards solidarity through struggle. It is ongoing. It is an undoing and a reconstitution. It is calling it as it is, having a problem with it, and doing all kinds of things to dismantle and end it. In my humble understanding and experience, it definitely isn’t to save ourselves or this place, but to take action in confronting our own biases and those around us, increasing community-led research efforts, educating ourselves and our communities, and demanding change in education and practices.

I wanted to work with the ICW because I believe that in this crucial moment in time among unrest and change, education is one of the most important elements of invigorating transformation toward a more just society. It is an honor and a privilege to work alongside students and faculty that have committed themselves throughout their academic career advocating for systemic change.

I volunteered to work with ICW because I am interested in academic and community outreach on social movements and racial justice - especially at a time like this. I’m excited to be a part of a collaboration of amazing faculty, students and local communities across the Twin Cities and the three colleges in D.C. and Atlanta to further the academic research and conversations around the topics of racial justice, policing and protests.