David Stovall

Associate Professor

University of Illinois at Chicago

Think and create, and find a community of folks that you can think and create with.

About David

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.