In this last episode of our first season, we’re talking queering Ethnic Studies. As Black queer author and activist Audre Lorde reminds us, "There is no such thing as a single issue because we don’t live single-issue lives." Our racial identity cannot be separated from our class, gender identities, sexual orientation, skin color, disabilities, body size, age or all the beautiful parts of us that make us human. Intersectional and liberatory curriculum and pedagogy on queerness in Ethnic Studies is still an area of growth within the larger Ethnic Studies movement—let alone the larger school system— especially in K-12 classrooms.

Though we’ve seen some progress in representation and institutional change in some places throughout the United States for the LGBTQIA2SMahu+ community, we still have so much more work to do, especially in our schools. From book bans, protecting our queer and trans youth from bullying, "Don’t Say Gay" bills, disproportionate mental health challenges due to discrimination and lack of support, and increased rates of suicide and depression, in order for our classrooms to truly be liberatory, we must ensure our LGBTQIA2SMahu+ students are not just seen and heard, but also central to how we work toward our freedom.

In this episode we’re lucky to listen in on a beautiful dialogue between CLES co-founder and core member Jody Sokolower and Ethnic Studies educator and leader Brian Batugo.

Jody is a long-time political activist, educator, writer, and editor. She is the author of "Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village" and is also a cofounder of our Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies. As managing editor of "Rethinking Schools" magazine, she also coedited the award-winning "Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality" in 2016 and edited "Teaching the Wars in the Middle East" in 2013. Jody has taught middle and high school students, adult English language learners, and teachers.

Brian is a queer Filipinx-American educator with over a decade of experience in K-12 education and community leadership. Brian majored in Ethnic Studies, Theater and Dance at UC Berkeley. He became a classroom teacher upon graduation, first working with K-3 students and then with High School youth. Specializing in Asian American and Filipino American studies, Brian has been instrumental in supporting in-school and after school ethnic studies-rooted youth experiences since 2012, in Stockton and now in San Diego. Currently, Brian works as an Ethnic Studies Resource Teacher in the San Diego Unified School District. He also formerly co-chaired the Big City Social Studies Professional Learning Community (BCSS PLC), a collective of critical history social science teacher educators and central office leaders across the nation focused on learning how to implement critical social studies practices. Brian sustains himself artistically by singing, dancing and performing in Drag with the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus.

We encourage new listeners to our podcast to start with Season 1 Episode 0 to help orient you and provide context to our liberated Ethnic Studies movement.

For resources from this episode head to our website: ethnicstudies-coalition.org/podcast

This episode features two teachers, Kailee Lewis and Christina Mitchell, who speak with chanel hurt of Black Lives Matters at School about the curriculum and framework for the Black Studies courses they teach in Stockton, California.

Black Studies is one of the four core areas developed by the originators of Ethnic Studies and this episode provides educators, administrators, and organizers with some of the details of how such a class comes to fruition at a school district level.

Established in 2017, the National Black Lives Matter at School is an organization struggling for liberation and racial justice in education for Black youth, educators, and all youth of color. The organization works to address racial justice in education by promoting restorative justice, advocating for mental health support, increasing Black teaching staff, ending police presence in schools, and mandating Black history and ethnic studies across the country.

Originally from Stockton, California, Christina Mitchell earned a BA from Claremont McKenna College and a MA from San Francisco State University. For over 10 years, she taught several high school courses including Spanish, World History and African American Studies in the Bay Area before moving back to her hometown. Christina has served as a Mentor for the Ethnic Studies Education Pathway Project, Curricular Lead for the California Regional Ethnic Studies Collaborative and Member of the Ethnic Studies Steering Committee for Stockton Unified School District. She is currently teaching Ethnic Studies and piloting a new Black & African American Studies course in Stockton.

Kailee Lewis grew up in southwest Michigan, graduated from Central Michigan University and moved to California with her family where she taught for nearly a decade. She worked on the Ethnic Studies team in Stockton for almost half of that time, where she taught and built community responsive and culturally relevant curriculum for students, in partnership with community members all around the Stockton area. She has helped with the curriculum development of four classes and taught the first Black & African American Studies courses on her campus in January 2023. In mid 2024, she and her family returned back to Michigan to bring her perspective of the transformative work of Ethnic Studies to her Midwest communities.

chanel hurt is a steering committee member and former administrative staff of National Black Lives Matter at School. She began volunteering with BLM at School after learning about the Week of Action during her term as a union board member for her local chapter in Virginia. chanel has taught middle and high school orchestra, second grade, and English as a foreign language for all ages, from 0-100. Currently, they focus more energy into creating self-publications, learning Spanish, and practicing community and organizational safety.

We encourage new listeners to our podcast to start with Season 1 Episode 0 to help orient you and provide context to our liberated Ethnic Studies movement.

For resources from this episode head to our website: ethnicstudies-coalition.org/podcast

It’s been one year since the beginning of the genocide in Palestine. With over 42,000 Palestinians murdered, 17,000 of them children. Now more than ever it’s important that we are teaching Palestine. Joining us on this two-part special episode are Samia Shoman and Rifk Ebeid, interviewed by Jody Sokolower.

Samia Shoman and Jody Sokolower are co-coordinators of the Teach Palestine Project at the Middle East Children's Alliance. Samia is a California native with Palestinian roots who has dedicated her career in public education to promoting racial and social justice in the classroom and in broader educational organizations. A long-time high school social science teacher with a special love for working with English learners, she currently serves as an administrator in her school district.

Jody is a long-time political activist, educator, writer, and editor. She is the author of "Determined to Stay: Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village" and is also a cofounder of our Coalition for Liberated Ethnic Studies. As managing editor of "Rethinking Schools" magazine, she also coedited the award-winning "Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality" in 2016 and edited "Teaching the Wars in the Middle East" in 2013. Jody has taught middle and high school students, adult English language learners, and teachers.

Rifk Ebeid is a Palestinian American Muslim writer, attorney, and pediatric speech language pathologist. She is the author of three children’s picture books about Palestine: "Birthday Kunafa," "You Are the Color," and "Baba, What Does My Name Mean? A Journey To Palestine," which was nominated for the 2020 Palestine Book Awards. She is also the producer of "I Am From Palestine," an animated short film about the Palestinian-American experience in school.

We encourage new listeners to our podcast to start with Season 1 Episode 0 to help orient you and provide context to our liberated Ethnic Studies movement.

For resources from this episode head to our website: ethnicstudies-coalition.org/podcast