Knowledge is more expansive than the boundaries of the Western university model and its claim to be the dominant--or only--rigorous house of knowledge. In the former colonies of Europe (e.g., South Africa, Brazil, and Oceania), the curriculum, statues, architectures, and other aspects of the university demonstrate the way in which it is a fixture in empire maintenance. The trajectory of global White supremacy is deeply historical and contemporary--it is a global, transnational, and imperial phenomenon. White supremacy is sustained through the construction of inferiority and anti-Blackness. The context, history, and perspective offered by Collins, Newman, and Jun should serve as an introduction to the disruption of the ways in which university and academic dispositions have and continue to serve as sites of colonial and White supremacist preservation--as well as sites of resistance.
CHRISTOPHER S. COLLINS studies the function of organizations in society and the production of knowledge in diverse and global settings. In collaboration with people around the world he has worked on studies of the World Bank and poverty reduction, the social value of higher education in the Asia Pacific region, and Indigenous knowledges in Hawai'i. For many years he worked with doctoral students to think deeply about cognitive justice and the interdependence and ecology of knowledges. He has completed more than fifty scholarly products (books, journal articles, and chapters), including his latest book, White Evolution: The Constant Struggle for Racial Consciousness (Peter Lang Publishing, 2020), coauthored with Alexander Jun. He earned a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, but learned much more from teachers, mentors, friends, and guides who did not offer course credit or diplomas.
CHRISTOPHER B. NEWMAN focuses his research primarily on outcomes, inequities, and undergraduate student experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Additionally, he has interests in multicultural education in global contexts. Newman has served as a consultant to the National Science Foundation's Colloquy on Minority Males. He has coauthored or coedited four books including Comprehensive Multicultural Education in the 21st Century. His research has appeared in the Journal of Multicultural Education, Teachers College Record, the Journal of Social Issues, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, The Journal of Negro Education, and Urban Education among others. He earned several awards while a faculty member at the University of San Diego, including an Outstanding Teaching Award (2013) and the Faculty Trailblazer award for mentorship and support of Black college students (2018).
ALEXANDER JUN conducts research on equity and justice in higher education around the world. A TEDx speaker in 2012, Jun was also a global fellow with the Center for Khmer Studies in Cambodia in 2010; an international research fellow at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, in 2016; and a 2018 scholar in residence at Belmont University in Tennessee. Jun is associate editor of the Journal of Behavioral and Social Sciences, and author of From Here to University: Access, Mobility, and Resilience among Urban Latino Youth. He also coauthored White Out: Understanding White Privilege and Dominance in the Modern Age, White Jesus: The Architecture of Racism in Religion and Education, and White Evolution: The Constant Struggle for Racial Consciousness (2020).
