Jamila Lyiscott, associate professor of social justice education in the College of Education and founding co-director of the Center of Racial Justice, recently received the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) 2026 Mid-career Award for Critical Examinations of Race, Ethnicity, Class and Gender. The award was presented April 11 at the AERA annual convention in Los Angeles.

Image

The award recognizes an outstanding scholar who is at the mid-point of his, her, or their career, within 10-15 years of receiving the doctoral degree and has established a significant research agenda related to the mission of the special interest group, which is “the integrated study of race, ethnicity, social class, and gender as lenses for performing critical analyses and evaluations of prevailing theory and practice in education.”

The recipient’s body of work must reflect a strong commitment to advancing educational equity and demonstrate a robust record of scholarly publications. Evaluation criteria for the award include significance of research agenda, evidence of advancing educational equity, notable contributions in the examination of race, ethnicity, social class and/or gender in education, and record of scholarly publications.

Lyiscott also recently presented the keynote address to the Multicultural Student Achievement Network (MSAN) Institute national conference. On April 16, she discussed “Who All Over There?! Becoming Worthy of the Agentic Voices of Black and Brown Youth” to the conference attendees in Madison, Wisconsin. MSAN, housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a national, multi-state coalition of school districts that learn, grow and work together to realize the vision of all students experiencing an inclusive and excellent education.