School of Education

Lasana D. Kazembe, PhD is an award-winning poet, educator, and critical Black scholar whose work examines culture, race, history, the arts, and the social context of education. In his research and teaching, Dr. Kazembe explores the ‘lost-found’ sacred epistemologies (i.e., history, expressive forms, imaginaries, folklore, futurities) of Africana peoples and situates them as sites of memory, critical pedagogy, cultural production, and social action. A major aspect of his work examines the history, political thrusts, aesthetic foundations, and audiopolitics of 20th century Global Black Arts Movements. Dr. Kazembe is an Associate Professor in the IU School of Education in Indianapolis, and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the IU Indianapolis Africana Studies Program. He also serves as inaugural Artist-inResidence for The Cabaret (a performing arts venue in Indianapolis, IN). His latest project for The Cabaret was, Paul Robeson: Man of the People, a jazz poetry opera that explores the life, activism, and artistic legacy of Paul Robeson.

• Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago (2013)
• M.A., Bowling Green State University (1994)
• B.F.A., Bowling Green State University (1992)

• Urban Education
• Global Black Arts Movements
• Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
• Arts and Arts Pedagogy
• Social & Racial Justice in Education
• The Black Intellectual Tradition
• Africana
• Liberatory Pedagogical Practices
• Black Education History

• Urban Education
• Global Black Arts Movements
• Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy
• Arts and Arts Pedagogy
• Social & Racial Justice in Education
• The Black Intellectual Tradition
• Africana
• Liberatory Pedagogical Practices
• Black Education History

• Teaching Black Arts Traditions: Exploring Social Justice Through Literary Nationalism – Digital (web-based) curriculum and history guide for teaching Global Black Arts Movements. Grant-funded research and writing project (2019-21).
• elev8te: Exploring Global Black Arts Movements. Participatory Action Research Project (2018- ).
• International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education special theme issue (two vols.) "Concepts and Categories in the Praxis of the Black Intellectual Tradition".
• The Voodoo of Hell’s Half-Acre”: The Travelin’ Genius of Richard Wright from Natchez to Chicago: A Blues Poetry Opera (2020-21).
• Arts Midwest: Poetry, People, Place - Exploring the art, lives, legacies of Mari Evans, Etheridge Knight, Freddie Hubbard, and Wes Montgomery (sponsored by Indiana Humanities' INseperable Speakers Bureau).
• Paul Robeson: Man of the People, a jazz poetry opera that explores the life, activism, and artistic legacy of Paul Robeson.