Teresa Ramos

I am a first year Ph.D. student in cultural anthropology. My social justice interests have lead me to Educational Anthropology and I hope to use critical race theory to study student and racial identity development in the United States Through my work I want to contribute to the breakdown of structural racism in public schools. I believe that school is one of the first places where people begin to define themselves. My own experience has proven to me that student development and racial identity development are inseparable. Further readings on both race and education have only reinforced this truth: how a person sees their racial and social position is heavily affected by a persons’ educational experience. I have grown up in a world that although clearly not color blind operates with the illusion that we are all born on equal footing. My experiences as a privileged White and Latina student, and concern for the future, continue to lead me into the subaltern academy. My ethnographic work on the Brown v Board of Education during the 2003-2004 academic year taught me about the strength and detrimental nature of the color blind mentality. I probably stepped beyond the bounds of a participant observer by becoming an advocate of change on several occasions and I hope to continue to do so with future research.

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