Dr. T. Elon Dancy II Begins Appointment as CUE Director
T. Elon Dancy II, PhD began his tenure as the third Helen S. Faison Endowed Chair and Director of the Center for Urban Education in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh on July 1. He comes to this appointment from his role as Professor and Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Academic Inclusion in the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma. Prior to the associate deanship, Dancy served as Fellow in the OU Office of the Senior Vice-President and Provost. He also held affiliate faculty appointments in African and African American Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and the Center for Social Justice.
“I am looking forward to exploring opportunities to advance the Center’s important contributions,” Dancy said. “This requires learning more about the historical, social, economic, and political forces that shape the lives of the people at the core of the Center’s work and mission. CUE is comprised of so many talented scholars and thinkers who ask important research questions and bring the disciplinary expertise that make this position so deeply exciting for me.”
An education sociologist, Dancy studies educational settings as sites for social identity development. His research focuses on issues of access and equity in the educational pipeline as informed by race, gender, class, and other sociopolitical locations. More specifically, Dancy’s scholarship is driven by questions related to sociohistorical contexts, masculinity formations, and how institutional praxis affects students’ academic and social outcomes. His journal articles have considered higher education issues, teacher preparation for minoritized students, school-to-prison pipelines, and race and gender hegemony in education. Publications appear in highly visible journals including The Journal of School Leadership, Equity & Excellence in Education, Teachers College Record, American Behavioral Scientist, Urban Education and Journal of Negro Education (among others).
Dancy is the author/editor of six books and monographs – Managing Diversity: (Re)visioning Equity on College Campuses (2010), The Brother Code: Manhood and Masculinity among African American Males in College (2012), Educating African American Males: Contexts for Consideration, Possibilities for Practice (2012), African American Males and Education: Examining the Convergence of Race and Identity (2012), Black Male Collegians: Increasing Access, Retention, and Persistence in Higher Education (2014), and Black Colleges across the Diaspora: Global Perspectives on Race and Stratification in Postsecondary Education (2017). He is the author or co-author of over 70 journal articles, book chapters, and publications related to education and society. Dancy is also past editor of The College Student Affairs Journal.
Dancy holds research awards and citations from the American Education Research Association (AERA) Division J, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Council on Ethnic Participation, and several other national research institutes. In 2014, Diverse Issues in Higher Education named him Top Emerging Scholar for his contribution to the study of race and gender in higher education and society. Dancy’s professional service includes Chair of the AERA Research Focus on Black Education, Executive Board Member for the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education, appointments to numerous AERA and ASHE committees, and editorial board member for several journals and handbooks in education research. In addition, he served as a member of the State of Oklahoma Black Education Advisory Board following senatorial appointment. His research on gender identity and academic outcomes among boys and men of color has been supported by several agencies including the National Science Foundation. Dancy has served as subject matter expert for several highly visible periodicals including Ebony magazine, The Root.com, and Diverse Issues in Higher Education.
