Kevin Lawrence Henry, Jr. is an award-winning scholar of race, racism, and education policy and practice. Dr. Henry is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His interdisciplinary scholarship investigates the politics of education, specifically school choice/market-based approaches to education. Dr. Henry’s research more concretely revolves around the intersections of charter schools and the charter school authorization process, political economy and neoliberalism, anti-Blackness, and Black educational thought and efforts towards justice. At base, Dr. Henry’s research is focused on two questions: (1) how the persistence of anti-Blackness and white supremacy shapes Black people’s educational experiences and (2) how the perspectives and practices of Black educational actors can reshape and transform the field of education to be more just, humanizing, and liberatory. As a qualitative methodologist, Dr. Henry’s interdisciplinary scholarship draws on Critical Race Theory (CRT), Black Studies, and Political Science.
He has published in the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Policy, and Teachers College Record, among others. He is the co-author, with Colleen Capper of the forthcoming Organizational Theory for Equity and Diversity, 2nd Edition (Routledge), co-editor with Kevin Clay of The Promise of Youth Anti-Citizenship: Race and Revolt in Education (University of Minnesota Press), as well as co-editor with Shameka Powell of the forthcoming Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education, Volume 1: Race and Ethnicity. His research has been supported by the Spencer Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation, where he served as a writing fellow in the Research to Reduce Inequality in the Lives of Young People initiative. Dr. Henry currently serves on the editorial boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Equity & Excellence in Education, Journal of Research on Leadership Education, and Educational Psychology for Policy and Practice. Dr. Henry is also the co-editor of Routledge’s Educational Leadership for Equity and Diversity book series.
Prior to returning to Wisconsin, Dr. Henry served on faculty at the University of Arizona in the College of Education and was a founding member of and policy fellow in the Education Policy Center.
Education
- PhD Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016
- BA Political Science, Tulane University, 2010
Select Media Contributions
- Juanona Brewster, Drilling Down in 60, (February, 2021). Media Link
- Henry, K.L., Jr., This #BlackMansChallenge is to extend my advocacy beyond validating the struggles of Black men. (2020). Media Link
- Girard, S, “It is what’s right”: Panel address inequities in school discipline. (October, 2020). Media Link
- Brenna Bailey, Tucson school districts still have more than 100 vacant teaching positions. (March, 2019). Media Link
- Henry, K.L., Jr., Celling our future: The Trump Administration’s efforts to worsen school discipline disparities. (2018). Media Link
Select Publications
- Henry, K. L. (2024). Historicizing Black Educational "Choice": Toward Black Educational Self-Determination. Educational Policy, 38(3), 741-767.
- Clay, K. L., & Henry, K. L. (2024). The Promise of Youth Anti-Citizenship: Race and Revolt in Education. The Promise of Youth Anti-Citizenship: Race and Revolt in Education University of Minnesota Press.
- Henry, K. L., Jenkins, D., White, M., & Greer, C. (2023). Conjuring the Devil: Historicizing Attacks on Critical Race Theory. Thresholds in Education, 46(1), 33-47.
- Henry, K. L. (2023). Feasting on Blackness: Educational Parasitism, Necropolicy, and Black thought. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
- Henry, K. L. (2023). They are here with me: (Critical Race) Theories from my flesh. In E. Tuck, K. Wayne Yang, & J. Nixon (Eds.), New approaches to inequality research: Theorizing race beyond the traditions of our disciplines (pp. 29-42). Routledge.
- Henry, K. L. (2022). A movement in two acts: Actually existing racism, CRT, and the charter school movement. In M. Lynn and A.D. Dixson (Ed.), Handbook of critical race theory in education 2nd Edition (pp. 427-439). Routledge.
- Henry, K. L. (2021). Zones of nonbeing: Abjection, white accumulation, and neoliberal school reform. Teachers College Record
- Henry, K. L. (2021). “The Price of Disaster”: The charter authorization process in post-Katrina New Orleans. Educational Policy, 35(2), 235-258.
- Henry, K. L. (2019). Heretical discourses in post-Katrina charter school applications. American Educational Research Journal, 56(6), 2609-2643.
- Henry, K. L., & Dixson, A. D. (2016). “Locking the door before we got the keys”: Racial realities of the charter school authorization process in post-Katrina New Orleans. Educational Policy, 30(1), 218-240.
Select Presentations
- (2024). “I stay woke”: Refusing Educational Parasitism through Black Study. Keynote/Plenary Address Centering Black Children in Education Conference.
- (2024). Why Race Matters. Interview PBS. Link
- (2023). Centering Blackness in Education Policy and Politics: A Meditation on Possibilities. Paper American Educational Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.
- (2023). Who is Afraid of Critical Race Theory?: White Supremacy and the Continuing Fight for Black Existence and Black Ideas? Paper American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.
- Henry, K. (2021). Race, Racism, and Education: New Directions in Policy and Practice. presented at the Rhode Island College.
- Henry, K., Dixson, A., Chapman, T., Lynn, M., Ladson-Billings, G., Solórzano, D., Donnor, J. K., Aleman, E., Lopez, G., Yosso, T., Suarez, C., & McCall, J. (2020). What is Critical Race Theory? A Teach-In. presented at the Facebook Live.
- Henry, K. (2020). Educational Leadership Resistance to the Neoliberal Turn in Education. presented at the University Council for Educational Administration.
- Henry, K. (2019). Heretical discourses in post-Katrina charter school applications. presented at the American Educational Research Association, Toronto, Canada.
- Ladson-Billings, G., Henry, K., & Dixson, A. D. (2019). Black education in New Orleans: Where do we go from here? presented at the Black Educators for New Orleans (BENOLA), New Orleans, LA.
- Henry, K. (2019). Hungering for control: Ideological (Il)legibility within charter school applications. presented at the University of Kentucky College of Education Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Research Symposium.
Select Awards and Honors
- Fellow, Transformative Justice in Education Center, University of California-Davis, 2016
- Early Career Award, American Educational Research Association (AERA), 2023
- The Jack A. Culbertson Award, University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), 2023
- Fellow, William T. Grant Foundation, (2021, 2022)
- Erasmus Circle Fellow, College of Education, University of Arizona, (2018–2019)
- Asa G. Hilliard III and Barbara A. Sizemore Fellow, American Educational Research Association (AERA), 2013