A More Radical Elsewhere

Dr. Wendi Williams’ work centers on the development, implementation, and evaluation of school and community-based health and educational interventions that promote health and well-being among youth, their families, and the educational and mental health practitioners who will work with them. Through her scholarship and research activity, she has articulated an intersectional approach to psycho-social spiritual intervention for middle school girls. The foundations of this work have extended to reflective-intervention to facilitate leadership development among diverse women and Black/African women, specifically. Recent scholarship includes, “Frenemies in the Academy: Relational Aggression among African American Women Academicians”, and a Special Issue on “Feminist Approaches to Interventions with Black Girls and Women” (June 2019), for the journal Women and Therapy. She is currently working on a new book, Black women at work: On being masked, muted, and muzzled. Wanda Watson is a Bronx-born Harlem-raised rural Alabama-influenced Bay Area-based teacher educator committed to humanizing teaching, learning, and living. Her upbringing shapes her commitment to transformative education and prioritizing a life filled with joy and good health. Teaching is her passion, anything else is a bonus. Wanda earned her B.A. in Human Biology and M.A. in Elementary Education at Stanford University. She taught elementary and middle school for five years in Oakland and New York City. She previously worked as a staff developer for the Inclusive Classrooms Project in New York City and was a teacher educator at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus. Dr. Watson completed her Ed.D. in 2015 at Teachers College, Columbia University in Curriculum and Teaching. Her dissertation titled “Putting up a Fight: Exploring Youth of Color Social Justice Praxis” explored the reciprocal processes of teaching, learning, and political organizing enacted by a remarkably brilliant group of youth of color in New York City. Her current research, teaching, and life’s work (because they are inseparable to her) centers on developmentally appropriate elementary ethnic studies; Black women’s politically relevant curriculum, pedagogy, and care; critically inclusive praxis; and youth/child-centered anti-oppressive education and teacher education. Dr. Watson is an Assistant Professor and Multiple Subjects Program Director at Mills College where she gets to work with a dynamic community of teachers committed to social justice.

I. Part One: Legacies – Foundations1. African diasporic and indigenous matriarchal societies (historical/contemporary)2. Unapologetic leadership – obstacles faced (Assata)3. (Erased) leadership in social movements, e.g. civil rights4. Mothering Leadership5. Womanist/black feminist/intersectional “tools” for leadership (Audre Lorde)6. Leading from subaltern – including case studiesII. Part Two: Manifestations-- Current theories and practices7. The institutions/structures we must navigate - case stories (Case of Lesley Lokko)8. Mental and Emotional Crossroads – case studies include (Stacey Abrams, Regina Stanback Stroud)9. Matriarchal governance (case studies: women in congress, New Zealand’s prime minister)10. Womanist/black feminist/intersectional “tools” for leadership (Audre Lorde)III. Part Three: Next -- Imaginaries: Imagining future theories and practices11. Unapologetic leadership (Assata)12. Healing Process13. Visionary pragmatic leadership14. A more radical elsewhere - futurity in leadership15. Embodied Leadership