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SIUE’s Angelica Jones Talks “Rachetdemics” on SXSW EDU

Her message and mission, which are stripped of pomp and elitism and framed with activism and social justice, has benefited students around the globe. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Angel Jones, PhD, will discuss her “street scholarship” as part of a featured session on Tuesday, March 7 at the SXSW EDU Conference in Austin, Texas.  

Jones, critical race scholar and visiting assistant professor in the SIUE School of Education, Health and Human Behavior’s (SEHHB) Department of Teaching and Learning, will be part of a panel conversation of hip-hop education academicians, hosted and moderated by New York Times bestselling author Christopher Emdin, PhD, a Robert A. Naslund Endowed Chair in Curriculum Theory and professor of education at the University of Southern California. The topic of discussion is “Ratchetdemic Street Scholars: A New Direction to Healing in Education.” 

“‘Ratchetdemic,’ being both ratchet and academic (like having rap battles about science, for example), is a concept developed by Dr. Christopher Emdin,” explained Jones. “It is an educational model that can empower students to embrace themselves, their backgrounds, and their education as parts of a whole, not disparate identities. It can also translate into celebrating protest, disrupting the status quo, and reclaiming the genius of youth in the classroom.” 

During the broadcast, Jones, in part, will address the meaning, purpose and positive impacts of a street scholar. 

“A street scholar is a public scholar whose mission, movements and motivations are rooted in service to the community,” Jones illuminated. “It is someone who unapologetically challenges normative, often inequitable, approaches to conducting and disseminating academic scholarship by intentionally making it accessible to the communities we serve. It is also someone with an unwavering commitment to social justice.” 

Some educational approaches that Jones will share will come from her recently published book, “Street Scholar: Using Public Scholarship to Educate, Advocate, And Liberate.” 

“My book is a call-to-action that encourages academia to reimagine how we approach research, teaching, and service by thoughtfully and intentionally engaging in public scholarship,” she acknowledged. “In the book, I describe how I use social media as an educational tool to increase access to academic scholarship.” 

Jones designed the SIUE course, Public Scholarship and Social Justice Advocacy, which teaches students how to use different forms of public scholarship including social media, podcasting, music, and art to advocate for social justice issues that are important to them.  

The March 7 session will also bring in concepts from Emdin’s book, “Ratchetdemic: Reimagining Academic Success,” according to Jones. 

SXSW EDU is an annual, internationally recognized educational conference that brings together educators and creative professionals to share innovative approaches to move the field of education forward. It is the educational component of SXSW which is an organization that fosters the convergence of tech, film, music, education and culture. 

Original source can be found here