T. Elon Dancy II has been selected as the third Helen S. Faison Endowed Chair and Director of the Center for Urban Education in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. He comes to this appointment from his role as Professor and Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Academic Inclusion in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to the associate deanship, Dr. Dancy served as Fellow in the OU’s Office of the Senior Vice-President and Provost. He also held affiliate faculty appointments in African and African American Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Center for Social Justice.
An education sociologist, Dr. Dancy studies educational settings as sites for social identity development. More specifically, his research focuses on issues of access and equity in the educational pipeline as informed by race, gender, class, and other sociopolitical locations. Dr. Dancy’s scholarship is driven by questions related to sociohistorical contexts, masculinity formations, and how institutional praxis affects students’ academic and social outcomes. His journal articles have considered higher education issues, teacher preparation for minoritized students, school-to-prison pipelines, and race and gender hegemony in education. Publications appear in highly visible journals including, among others, The Journal of School Leadership, Equity & Excellence in Education, Teachers College Record, American Behavioral Scientist, Urban Education and Journal of Negro Education.
Dr. Dancy is the author/editor of six books and monographs – Managing Diversity: (Re)visioning Equity on College Campuses (2010), The Brother Code: Manhood and Masculinity among African American Males in College (2012), Educating African American Males: Contexts for Consideration, Possibilities for Practice (2012), African American Males and Education: Examining the Convergence of Race and Identity (2012), Black Male Collegians: Increasing Access, Retention, and Persistence in Higher Education (2014), and Black Colleges across the Diaspora: Global Perspectives on Race and Stratification in Postsecondary Education (2017). He is the author or co-author of over 70 journal articles, book chapters, and publications related to education and society.