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Dr. David E. Kirkland is the Executive Director of The NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and The Transformation of Schools, and associate professor of English and Urban Education at NYU's Steinhardt School. He is also an activist and educator, cultural critic and author. Dr. Kirkland earned his PhD from Michigan State University and his JD from the University of Michigan. A Detroit native, his transdisciplinary scholarship explores intersections among race, gender, and education. With many groundbreaking publications to his credit, he has analyzed the cultures, languages, and texts of urban youth, using critical literary, ethnographic, and sociolinguistic research methods to answer complex questions at the center of equity and social justice in education and beyond. Dr. Kirkland taught middle and high school for several years in Michigan. He’s also organized youth empowerment and youth mentoring programs for over a decade in cities such as Detroit, Chicago, and New York. He currently leads efforts to enhance education options for vulnerable youth throughout New York City, particularly for youth in the South Bronx. Dr. Kirkland has received many awards for his research and educational activism, including the 2016 AERA Division G Early Career Award, the 2008 AERA Division G Outstanding Dissertation Award. He was a 2009-10 Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, a 2011-12 NAEd/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, and is a former fellow of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Research Foundation's “Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color” program. A Search Past Silence: The Literacy of Black Males, the fifth book that Dr. Kirkland has authored, is a TC Press bestseller and winner of the 2015 Daniel E. Griffiths Research Award, the 2014 AESA Critics Choice Award, and the 2014 NCTE David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in the Teaching of English. He is also co-editor of the newly released Students Right to Their Own Language, a critical sourcebook published by Bedford/St. Martins Press. A prolific speaker and writer, Dr. Kirkland has been a pivotal intellectual voice behind the cause of advancing justice and equity for vulnerable populations across the U.S. and around the globe.