RESEARCH |
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My research is rooted in Indigenous feminisms and makes critical interventions in settler colonial studies, critical whiteness studies, and educational research by historicizing how the discursive construction of benevolent whiteness sustains white supremacy through the figure of the white woman teacher. I focus on the ways gendered settler colonialism and anti-Blackness are enacted and reproduced in schooling. Specifically, my ethnographic and archival work brings together European poststructuralist theory—particularly Foucauldian analysis—with Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) genealogical methods to illuminate both ruptures and continuities in historical lineages. This methodological pairing demonstrates how power is enacted on and through the body, reconstituting some as heroic (white women) and others as problematic (Black and Indigenous children). In addition to this theoretical work, I recently co-led a three-year, Spencer Foundation–funded participatory action research project that explored the impact of ethnic studies curriculum with elementary teachers. This collaboration allowed me to translate theoretical and historical insights into practice, working with Bay Area educators through what we term “critical race inquiry” (Watson & Bauer, 2022). Across my scholarship, I value a balance between community-based and historical research, with particular attention to genealogies and counterstories that center and humanize Indigenous peoples and other communities of color.
My first book, Tender Violence in U.S. Schools: Benevolent Whiteness and the Dangers of Heroic White Womanhood (Routledge, 2022), takes as its provocation the so-called “discipline gap” in U.S. public schools. While this disparity is often attributed to pathologized or misunderstood communities, I argue that such framings deflect attention from the settler colonial roots of educational standards themselves. The result is a national pattern in which Black and Indigenous students are suspended and expelled at the highest rates—often beginning as early as kindergarten. The book advances an underexplored perspective: how white women, who constitute the majority of U.S. teachers, have historically understood—and been positioned in—the disciplining of Black and Indigenous students, both in the literal and Foucauldian senses. I argue that the over-disciplining of these students must be understood not simply as a failure of policy but as a consequence of historically framed “benevolent intentions” that cast white women teachers as moral guardians of the State. The book closes by considering how Indigenous futurities might move us beyond critique toward imagining anti-colonial, antiracist modes of teaching and learning.
My second book project, Pedagogies of Futurity: Black and Indigenous Education for Resistance, Persistence, and Survival, extends my first book’s call for reimagined and remembered futures. Whereas Tender Violence interrogates whiteness in formal schooling, this project centers Indigenous knowledge traditions and Black educational thought to envision educational practices that are currently deemed impossible. The COVID-19 pandemic sharpened this inquiry: while public discourse often cast students of color as “left behind,” preliminary data reveal that many experienced reduced anxiety and increased well-being when freed from the daily violence of traditional schooling. Building from this complexity, I seek to recover and analyze histories of Black and Indigenous educational initiatives—particularly those led by families and communities—that offer alternative visions of learning. Through this work, I aim to construct a genealogy of Black and Indigenous futurisms that positions these traditions as resources for building equitable and revolutionary educational experiences. In contrast to my first book, Pedagogies of Futurity foregrounds education’s emancipatory potential rather than its disciplinary function. Expanding on my use of moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) as methodology, the project employs Indigenous storytelling practices and centers Native and Black voices through the creation of an oral history archive. I am currently mentoring undergraduate research assistants in this work and will seek NEH digital humanities support to develop a publicly accessible repository. Confirmed collaborators include Ericka Huggins of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School and Madonna Thunderhawk of the We Will Remember Survival School for Indigenous Youth.
Across both Tender Violence and Pedagogies of Futurity—and throughout my scholarship—I take seriously the Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) traditions of storytelling and genealogy as legitimate research methodologies. These practices emphasize relational understandings of selfhood—contemporary, historical, and interdependent—that stand in sharp contrast to Western notions of the autonomous individual divorced from land, history, and consequence. Moʻokūʻauhau as methodology enables the tracing of ancestral and historical lineages of Black and Indigenous resistance and survivance under settler colonialism, while also guiding us toward imagining alternative futures. I center this work in my own scholarship and am eager to extend it collaboratively with undergraduate and graduate students, whether through independent projects, coursework in research methodologies, or community-based participatory research with Indigenous peoples and other communities of color.
My first book, Tender Violence in U.S. Schools: Benevolent Whiteness and the Dangers of Heroic White Womanhood (Routledge, 2022), takes as its provocation the so-called “discipline gap” in U.S. public schools. While this disparity is often attributed to pathologized or misunderstood communities, I argue that such framings deflect attention from the settler colonial roots of educational standards themselves. The result is a national pattern in which Black and Indigenous students are suspended and expelled at the highest rates—often beginning as early as kindergarten. The book advances an underexplored perspective: how white women, who constitute the majority of U.S. teachers, have historically understood—and been positioned in—the disciplining of Black and Indigenous students, both in the literal and Foucauldian senses. I argue that the over-disciplining of these students must be understood not simply as a failure of policy but as a consequence of historically framed “benevolent intentions” that cast white women teachers as moral guardians of the State. The book closes by considering how Indigenous futurities might move us beyond critique toward imagining anti-colonial, antiracist modes of teaching and learning.
My second book project, Pedagogies of Futurity: Black and Indigenous Education for Resistance, Persistence, and Survival, extends my first book’s call for reimagined and remembered futures. Whereas Tender Violence interrogates whiteness in formal schooling, this project centers Indigenous knowledge traditions and Black educational thought to envision educational practices that are currently deemed impossible. The COVID-19 pandemic sharpened this inquiry: while public discourse often cast students of color as “left behind,” preliminary data reveal that many experienced reduced anxiety and increased well-being when freed from the daily violence of traditional schooling. Building from this complexity, I seek to recover and analyze histories of Black and Indigenous educational initiatives—particularly those led by families and communities—that offer alternative visions of learning. Through this work, I aim to construct a genealogy of Black and Indigenous futurisms that positions these traditions as resources for building equitable and revolutionary educational experiences. In contrast to my first book, Pedagogies of Futurity foregrounds education’s emancipatory potential rather than its disciplinary function. Expanding on my use of moʻokūʻauhau (genealogy) as methodology, the project employs Indigenous storytelling practices and centers Native and Black voices through the creation of an oral history archive. I am currently mentoring undergraduate research assistants in this work and will seek NEH digital humanities support to develop a publicly accessible repository. Confirmed collaborators include Ericka Huggins of the Black Panther Party’s Oakland Community School and Madonna Thunderhawk of the We Will Remember Survival School for Indigenous Youth.
Across both Tender Violence and Pedagogies of Futurity—and throughout my scholarship—I take seriously the Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) traditions of storytelling and genealogy as legitimate research methodologies. These practices emphasize relational understandings of selfhood—contemporary, historical, and interdependent—that stand in sharp contrast to Western notions of the autonomous individual divorced from land, history, and consequence. Moʻokūʻauhau as methodology enables the tracing of ancestral and historical lineages of Black and Indigenous resistance and survivance under settler colonialism, while also guiding us toward imagining alternative futures. I center this work in my own scholarship and am eager to extend it collaboratively with undergraduate and graduate students, whether through independent projects, coursework in research methodologies, or community-based participatory research with Indigenous peoples and other communities of color.