Jessica Stovall
Dr. Jessica Lee Stovall is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the Director of The SoulFolk Collective. Her research is at the intersection of Black Studies and Education, and she explores how Black people co-construct spaces to make ways out of no ways. Before beginning her doctoral studies in Stanford’s Race, Inequality, and Language in Education, Jessica taught English and reading for 11 years in the Chicagoland area. Some of her loves include reading novels, going for walks in search of bodies of water, and thrift shopping.
In-Person | PM Session B
2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
-
Facilitated By: Jessica Stovall & Micah Sagers
Audience: Open to Black People, the people who love them, Youth, and people invested in Black Education
What would it mean to design a Black-centered, Saturday Freedom School program in today's political climate?
This session will introduce attendees to a lesser-known aspect of the Civil Rights Movement: Freedom Schools, radical community learning spaces created by and for Black communities to address educational inequities, cultivate political consciousness, and challenge antiblackness. Drawing from the history and organizing practices of Freedom Schools, the SoulFolk Collective will invite attendees to imagine what Black-centered education could look like today. Through interactive activities that include group analysis of historical freedom school lessons, themes from focus groups with Black Youth in MMSD, and collective imagining, participants will have the opportunity to envision new possibilities for education, community, and liberation.
This lesson is taught by members of The SoulFolk Collective, a community of researchers at UW-Madison dedicated to positioning Black space as a blueprint for more liberatory futures.
The Collective plans to launch the SoulFolks Saturday School on Madison’s South Side in January 2027. Rooted in solidarity, the Saturday School seeks to create a space where Black students can freely express all facets and dynamisms of their Black identity, as well as develop the tools to think critically, ask questions, and connect their learning to their own lives and communities.