Specializing in urban politics at the intersection of race, gender, and class, Tanishia Lavette Williams is currently obtaining a PhD from the Public and Urban Policy program at the Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy at The New School. Broadly, Tanishia’s research examines curriculum adoption (namely Culturally Responsive Pedagogy), policy, and educational disparities with a focus on the achievement and life outcomes of Black students. Based on her experience as a superintendent, executive director, principal, and teacher in school systems undergoing expansive reform, Tanishia’s focus on education aims to connect praxis and theory. Her contributions to both school-based pedagogues and contemporary literature leverage the historicity of race relations within the law to modern policy and culturalisms that impact public education. In essence, Tanishia’s scholarship examines how racism permeates systems through existing legal structures that buttress the subordination of minorities through racialized hierarchies.
Tanishia looks toward serving as the Inaugural Education Stratification Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School. She previously served as a Critical Race Theory Senior Research Fellow with the African American Policy Forum and Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies at Columbia University. Tanishia is completing her PhD while concurrently obtaining a Master of Science degree in Data Visualization from the Parsons School of Design. She also has Master of Arts degrees in Emotional and Behavioral Disturbances from George Washington University and an Organizational and Educational Leadership degree from George Mason University.