Khalil Johnson, Ph.D. student in African American Studies

Khalil Anthony Johnson, Jr. is currently at Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Lewis and Clark College, in Portland, Oregon, where he teaches courses in American Indian history and the history of education. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 2005 with a B.A. in English literature, and then taught for two years in Thoreau, NM, a small town bordering the Navajo Nation, where his experiences shaped his interest in African American and Native American cultural exchange. His research probes questions of race and subjugation; the nature of sovereignty, citizenship, and state power; and the tension between competition and collaboration in interethnic campaigns for equality and civil rights.

Specifically, his dissertation, “Red, Black, & Brown: African  American Educators in Indian Country,” documents the stories of African American teachers and their students in reservation boarding schools during the civil rights era. In 2010, Khalil received a predoctoral fellowships from Ford Foundation and was a 2012 recipient of the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation dissertation fellowship. His essays and writings have appeared in American Quarterly, Pacific Historical Review, and the Navajo Times.