Upcoming National Council for the Social Studies Conference (NCSS) Will Feature Kimberlé Crenshaw and Hakeem Jeffries, Plus Sessions on Reproductive Justice, Climate Change, Critical Race Action Civics, and Decolonial Perspectives on Palestine

The National Council for Social Studies (NCSS) will hold its 105th annual conference in Washington, D.C. from December 5-7 (though pre-workshops begin December 2nd). The conference webpage reads, “You will leave the conference with strong strategies for delivering instruction that engages students, the best ways to advocate for the most pressing issues of social studies education, and a network of colleagues to support you throughout the year.”

The theme for this year’s conference is “Because Democracy Depends on It.” Featured speakers include Hakeem Jeffries, Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, Kentanji Brown Jackson and co-editor/architect of critical race theory, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.

Episcopalian Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde gained notoriety for her inaugural sermon for President Trump, in which she called for mercy, including for transgender children, “some of whom fear for their lives.”

Kimberlé Crenshaw, who is considered the “architect” and “co-editor” of critical race theory, as well as the leading voice behind “intersectionality,” led the African American Policy Forum’s #TruthBeTold campaign to “expose” the harm associated with rejecting critical race theory. Crenshaw is also a founding coordinator of the Critical Race Theory workshop.

Crenshaw appeared on The Laura Flanders Show to discuss Republicans and the idea that “The right found their latest racist, wedge issue, critical race theory.” With the rejection of critical race theory, Crenshaw said, “there really is no agenda that the Republicans have other than holding onto power and trying to make it permanent … They’re suffocating democracy.”

“Crenshaw is a sought-after speaker who conducts workshops and trainings on intersectionality and structural racism around the world,” her bio reads. The NCSS cites Crenshaw as a “pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, intersectionality, race, racism, and the law.”

Various sessions will focus on critical race theory and race itself. Two of these sessions include: “Reclaiming Elementary Social Studies Through Critical Literacy, Antiracism, and Storytelling” and “Critical Race Action Civics: Reflections on Positioning an Action Civics Curriculum as Racial Text.”

Another theme of the upcoming sessions is abolitionism. Titles for these sessions include: “Working Towards More Abolitionist Futures for Environmental and Sustainability Education,” “Teacher Professional Development in the Pursuit of More Abolitionist Futures,” “Classroom Practices in the Pursuit of More Abolitionist Futures” and “Beyond Antiracism: Abolition in the Context of Teacher Learning and Professional Development.”

The “Beyond Antiracism” session will “explore abolitionist education in teacher professional development, analyzing research-based approaches and strategies for resistance amid political restrictions and threats to democracy.”

Additional themes present include climate change, reproductive justice and decolonial perspectives. These sessions include: “Decolonial Perspectives on Palestine, Indigenous Rights, and Global Justice,” “Contending with the Challenges and Possibilities of Climate Change Education in Social Studies” and “Conceiving Reproductive Justice in Social Studies Education.”

Other sessions refer to “troubled times” and “authoritarianism.” One session geared towards higher education is titled “Teaching democracy in the dark: Perspectives on social studies education amid a cloud of authoritarianism.”

A similar session with two iterations titled “Teacher Educators as Scholar Citizens: Faculty Activism in Troubled times” will include “work by authors in the recently published Teacher Educators as Scholar Citizens: Activism and Resistance in Uncertain Times. Exploring forms of resistance and activism from within the academic/educator role, we’ll explore personal struggles, organizing strategies, and theoretical insights from those who have engaged as scholar citizens.”

The list of confirmed exhibitors for the conference includes a publishing house striving for the “development of a critical, engaged, and internationalist Left,” who hosts an annual Socialism Conference as well as another publishing house aimed at “especially” affirming “LGBTQQIA+ people” and “gender identities.”