G.U. Professor Malone Tackles Timely Questions in Education and Social Theory

Published: April 13, 2021

Assistant Professor of Education Larissa Malone has contributed her academic research to conversations about race and education that reach far beyond G.U.s campus.

Malone spent summer 2018 conducting research at the Wesleyan Center of Point Loma University in lieu of a planned publication, and will return to continue her project this summer. She also recently presented at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) conference. Her research sheds light on how policy makers and people of faith can engage with racial justice.

At the CIES conference, Malone presented Localized Diaspora: School Integration and Its Implications for Black Neighborhoods in the United States.

Her presentation examined the inadvertent outcomes of intra-district school integration on black neighborhoods. Because educational institutions are often shaped by the majority culture, Malone argued, integrating schools without careful planning can lead to a diaspora effect for minority students, rather than achieving a multi-cultural environment.

Her findings outlined how school integration without careful thought can lead to

• cultural mistrust across school districts,
• the breakdown of neighborhood schooling in black neighborhoods, and
• placing the dominant culture at the center of all community politics.

The topic aligned closely with Malones ongoing work as a leadership team member for the African Diaspora Special Interest Group of the CIES.

Meanwhile, Malone gears up for a second summer as a visiting scholar at the Wesleyan Center of Point Loma University.

She will continue a project begun in summer 2018, which explores how the Christian faith informs and intersects with racial reconciliation at a societal level.

Specifically, Malone is investigating how Christianity and the churchs history of social progression intersect with Critical Race Theory (CRT), a theory that critiques cultural power structures for upholding majority culture and devaluing minority culture. Malone calls this Christ-centric lens on CRT Critical Race Christianity.

In summer 2019, I will draft and edit an article that details the development, core doctrine and potential application of the Critical Race Christianity framework, she says. She will co-author this article with Qiana Lightner Lachaud, an Equity and Justice Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh.

Malone has identified a target publication for her article that she hopes will reach people of faith and those studying critical social theory.

Read more about G.U. professors contributions beyond the classroom:

Greenville Professor Visits Harvard to Help Combat Global Disease

Hat Trick of G.U. Influences in Wesleyan Thought

G.U. Faculty Assume Lead Roles at Annual Wesleyan Conference

President and First Lady Filby Minister at Wabash Church Conference

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