John Palella joined the Department this month as Lecturer in Education, from Clark University's Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies. Below, John shares his journey to Brown, research interests, and excitement working with students. 

Welcome to Brown! You’re joining the Education Department as Lecturer in Education and will be working closely with undergraduates and graduate students. Why did you choose to come to Brown?

How much space do I have :) I chose Brown for so many reasons, but in following my own advice that I give my students, I will lead off with my strongest evidence: Brown's commitments to training culturally responsive and social-justice-oriented educators; transforming the educational experiences of predominantly Black and Brown students in urban schools; and fighting systemic inequities in the Providence school district through research, teaching, and local activism! These are the major reasons why I came to Brown.

Actually, in some ways Brown chose me. Last October I had reached out to my old mentor at New York University and explained to her that I was interested in transitioning back into social studies education and/or urban education work. I was finishing up a postdoctoral teaching fellowship at Clark University in critical race, gender, and sexuality studies and wanted to bring that experience to a social studies education program that had partnerships with urban schools. Shortly after that communication, someone at Brown had sent her the advertisement for the position of a Lecturer in Education who would also guide MAT students specializing in Social Studies Education. Since I lived in Providence, had always wanted to work at Brown University, and basically just told her that this was the type of position I was looking for, my mentor sent me the application link and description. It was a Friday in November, I remember. I instantly cancelled my plans for the weekend and worked on the application all weekend at a local coffee shop. It was fun, I kind of felt like I was back in grad school again, but only this time the payoff wasn't an "A" it was Brown University. I later interviewed, toured the campus, met the most amazing people, gave a couple talks, and now I am here. I am still smiling ear-to-ear even as I recall this story!

Can you expand on your research which focuses on secondary education and experiences of race, gender, and sexuality in the U.S.? Are there issues in your research that are currently top-of-mind for you?

I simultaneously wear many academic hats. Sometimes I feel like the Hydra from Greek mythology, but only nicer, and with access to a fabulous milliner. I am a historian, who is a social studies teacher, who is a scholar of intersectionality, who is a teacher educator, who is an activist. These positionalities work synergistically and drive both my teaching and my scholarship. For example, I was recently working on a project called "Creating Gay Heads." This is a cultural and intellecutal history of Gay liberation where I examine the ways in which LGBTQIA+ folks "educated" each other on "how to be Gay" in pre-Internet America. I focus on the ways in which this formal and informal education progressed in racial, gendered, sexual, classed, bodily, geographical, and religious terms. How, perhaps, would a young white cisgender male living in upstate NY engage in Queer-subjectivity-building differently from a Black Trans* woman who lived in the West Village during that first decade of Gay liberation? I have a special interest in the voices that LGBTQIA+ historiography has both ignored and muffled. Moreover, I use this research to empower social studies teachers to explore these histories in their classrooms. I argue that social studies teachers can guide their own students through these narratives in order to engage in meaningful conversations about identity, resistance, and power in their classrooms. Brown students that work with me will learn to build their own students' historical literacies as opposed to practicing what some pedagogical theorists call "heritage teaching." I am a major proponent of bridging the gap between the academic world and the secondary social studies classroom to better meet the needs of a generation of students who are critical thinkers as opposed to passive learners of information.

Moreover, current cultural trends, political problems, and social issues, drive my research interests. Today, antiracism absolutely sits at the top of both my research and teaching agendas. Since race is never separated from gender, sexuality, class, ability, geography, religion, and all of the various identities that we embody, my research and teaching in intersectionality remain critical to my position at Brown. I look forward to teaching classes on social studies for social justice, the histories of race and education in the United States, or issues of gender and sexuality in teaching, just to name a few.

In your new role, you’ll be working most closely with the Master of Arts in Teaching students in the social studies discipline. What do you think makes the MAT program different from other teacher education programs?

I think I spoke to this in my answer to question #1 a little bit, but I will elaborate some more here. I want to fight against white supremacy, structural racism, misogyny, heteronormativity, homophobia, transphobia, and identity-based violence in Providence's public schools. Brown University has this same commitment. It is both an exciting and scary time to be a teacher-educator in the United States. We had eight years of critical hope and systemic change under President Barack Obama. I, for one, felt empowered and supported to fight racism, challenge heteronormativity, and tear down sexist patriarchal structures. And then, in a blink of an eye, all of that critical hope and change came to a screeching halt on a federal level, and in local levels where racist, sexist, homophobic, and transphobic school boards saw an opportunity to refocus the power dynamics. Brown's commitment to the cultural responsiveness and social justice-oriented teaching of the Obama years first and foremost distinguishes its MAT program. The Education Department, for example, hired an openly LGBTQIA+ man who did his job talk on using storytelling for grappling with white fragility, teaching social studies through antiracist frameworks, and centering courses in critical race and ethnic studies, feminist studies, and Queer studies. I think that is incredible. Brown doesn't just talk the talk, it walks the walk toward culturally responsive and social justice-oriented education. I feel so honored to be part of a program that is directing resources toward antiracism and transformative teaching. Furthermore, the MATs, who are coming to Brown, already view themselves as potential agents of change in urban education in America. The word is out, come to Brown if you are dedicated to improving the quality of education for students who are learning in urban contexts. In just one week of working with the MAT students (and faculty) I have been brought to tears of inspiration on several occasions. Brown is not just practicing culturally responsive and social justice-oriented teaching, it is going to radicalize these practices for its students and the students of the high schools and middle schools that it serves. I am honored, excited, and humbled to be part of that mission.

What are you most looking forward to in your new role? Is there anything local you’re excited to try or experience in Providence?