Multicultural and culturally sustaining approaches to education help educators act on two essential concepts: that each student is unique and that uniqueness is central to the academic and social development of every student. Language is a key aspect of this uniqueness, and because language is integral to culture and identity, understanding…

I first describe the Black scholarly dilemma to set up the reader for how spirit murder happens subtly and the ways, I argue, centering Black life can restore our spirits. Through meditating on the existing literature, I argue that exclusion and marginalization are not the primary indicators of spirit murder in the education field or the academy.…

Existing research notes that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are bastions of Black culture where Black students often feel supported (e.g., Harris in The Urban Review, 44(3), 332-357, 2012). What is less well-known are the specific practices campus stakeholders enact to create culturally-affirming environments. This study…