Jarvis R. Givens is a professor of education and faculty affiliate in the department of African & African American studies at Harvard University. As an interdisciplinary scholar, he specializes in 19th and 20th century African American history, history of education, and theories of race and power in education. Professors Givens’ work has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Ford Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the William F. Milton Fund, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. From 2016 to 2018 he was a Dean’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Professor Givens’ first book, Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching, was published by Harvard University Press in 2021, and has received the following awards:
Winner, 2022 ASALH Book Prize, Association for the Study of African American Life and History
Winner, 2022 AERA Outstanding Book Award, American Educational Research Association
Winner, 2022 HES Book Award, History of Education Society
Winner, 2022 Lois P. Rudnick Book Prize, New England American Studies Association
Winner, 2022 Frederic W. Ness Book Award, American Association of Colleges & Universities
Finalist, 2022 MAAH Stone Book Award, Museum of African American History
Fugitive Pedagogy journeys through the subversive history of African American education from slavery through the Jim Crow era, analyzing the political and intellectual work of black teachers. The famed educator and groundbreaking historian Carter G. Woodson is the central character in this story. Professor Givens also co-edited We Dare Say Love: Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys, published by Columbia’s Teachers College Press in 2018. His articles appear in academic journals and various public outlets, such as The Atlantic, American Education Research Journal, Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics Culture and Society, Harvard Educational Review, Black Perspectives, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Education Weekly, and more.
The historical questions at the heart of Professor Givens’ research inform practical efforts. In 2020 he began building The Black Teacher Archive at Harvard in partnership with Professor Imani Perry of Harvard University. Phase one of this digital humanities project consists of locating and digitizing a complete collection of journals published by Colored Teachers Associations between the 1920s and 1970. Professor Givens regularly engages educators, organizations, and communities around the importance of black educational history for our contemporary moment and the critical importance of African American teachers. He is also a proud life member and executive council member of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.
Professor Givens second book, School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness, was published by Beacon Press in February 2023. His third book, tentatively titled American Grammar: Race, School, and the Building of a Nation, is under contract with Harper Books. This latter work offers a new history of early US education by rigorously accounting for the Native American and African American presence in the political economic development of schooling through the 19th century. Professor Givens has also edited and re-introduced two African American classics, both of which were released in 2023: Carter G. Woodson’s (1933) The Mis-Education of the Negro, published by Penguin Classics, and Booker T. Washington’s (1901) Up from Slavery, published by the Norton Library.
Professor Givens earned a BS in Business Administration then a MA and PhD in African American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. He is originally from Compton, California and currently resides in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.