Additional Appointments
Affiliate Faculty, Banks Center for Educational Justice Research Affiliate, Community Based Research on Equity, Activism, & Transformative Education (CREATE) Center, University of Michigan
Research Interests
Dana Nickson
Dana Nickson, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of education equity and justice in leadership, policy, and politics. Her research centers Black families' diverse forms of educational and spatial agency to deepen understanding of how Black families and communities create places of care, collectivity, and learning in racially and economically unjust U.S. metropolitan regions. Informed by her own upbringing and work across community organizations and schools, Dana approaches research and teaching with a deep belief in Black families and communities' multifaceted forms of agency as integral to more expansive and liberatory approaches to educational leadership and practice.
- Art of Leadership Teaching Award, Danforth Educational Leadership Program, University of Washington, 2022
- AERA Division L Education Policy & Politics Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2021
- Stanley E. & Ruth B. Dimond Best Dissertation Award, University of Michigan School of Education, 2021
- Barbara Jackson Scholar, University Council for Educational Administration, 2017-2019
- Rackham Merit Fellow, University of Michigan, 2015-2020
- Nickson, D. (2024). “Livonia is just all racism”: locating Black families’ racial and spatial experiences, school choices, and educational agency in metropolitan Detroit. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2024.2419131
- Germinaro, K., & Nickson, D. (2024). Black Spatial Storylines: Connections of Black space, sound and story as Pedagogy. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069241279499
- Nickson, D. (2022). Embracing the city: Black families’ place attachments and (re)imaginings of the city and suburb in search of educational opportunity. AERA Open, 8(1), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584221126479
- Wilson, C., Nickson, D., Hetrick, C., Wilson-Clark, D. (2022). “Nothing about us without us”: Tending to the emancipatory ideologies and transformative goals of participatory action research partnerships. Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/14687941221087869
- Nickson, D. (2021). The democratization of educational care: Spatial imaginaries, demographic change, and Black families continued educational advocacy. Equity & Excellence in Education, 5(3), 303-316. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2021.2021613
- Wilson, C., Nickson, D., Ransom, K. (2021). Spiriting urban educational justice: The leadership of African American mothers organizing for increased school access and local control. Journal of Educational Change. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10833-021-09443-1
Please email me at dnickson@uw.edu, if you are unable to access any article and would like a copy.
