Jerusha Osberg Conner, Author at Mississippi Free Press

Jerusha Osberg Conner

Dr. Conner is a Professor of Education at Villanova University. She holds expertise in student voice, student engagement, and youth organizing and activism. The author of more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, she has published The New Student Activists (Johns Hopkins University Press) and co-edited Contemporary Youth Activism (ABC-CLIO).

As a researcher who specializes in youth activism, I have conducted research on and with youth organizing groups in which critical race theory is a core component of the political education. Eighty-two percent of youth organizing groups regularly offer political education, which involves a critical examination of social issues, usually through workshops and group discussions.

My research–along with that of other scholars–points to three important outcomes for young people who are taught critical race theory as part of youth organizing.