David Stovall
Associate Professor
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, IL US
“Think and create, and find a community of folks that you can think and create with.”
Videos
By Roadtrip NationDavid Stovall
Milestones
My road in life took a while to figure out.
Says his driving force is, "What is that story that we don't talk about? What are the things that have gone missing?"
In kindergarten, he got the "bogus" Columbus story, couldn't understand how he "discovered" a place where people already lived.
Disinvested from school, thought it was feeding him lies; years later, a teacher told him he should work to prove the world's negative expectations of him wrong.
Says all forthright change comes from people who have "found their conditions intolerable and are working to change those conditions."
He knew he had to change the educational system's flaws from the inside.
Uses his free time off from teaching to work in classrooms in Chicago; takes those experiences back to his college students.
This allows him to speak confidently about what is going on in the communities he lectures about, rather than just "pontificating."
Says working in spaces of poverty, hypersegregation can be frustrating and toxic for some, but he's learned to find happiness in the little things.
Education
High School
Career
Associate Professor
I am a professor focusing on the influence of race in urban education, and community development.
Career Roadmap
My work combines:
My work combines:
Education
Politics
Teaching / Mentoring
Day to Day
As a professor of Educational Policy Studies and African-American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, I attend classes and prepare lectures twice a week. I spend the majority of my time volunteering and working within the communities I hope to influence in order to better tell their studies. I also write and do a lot of research.
Advice for Getting Started
Here's the first step for everyone
Appreciate the small things and always ask questions. Build community with the people who can answer those questions. Find a community of individuals that you can think and create with.
Hurdles
The Noise I Shed
From Myself:
"All school is teaching me are lies."
Interviewed By
Rounding the Bend
The road-trippers interview writer Beverly Donofrio at her home in Long Island before they head on to Detroit, where they talk to spoken word poet Airea Dee Matthews about possibility and growth in an unlikely place. In Chicago, Tele'jon reconsiders his reservations about going back to school when the team interviews Professor David Stovall.
