Amelia Herbert

Amelia Herbert’s research examines how youth, families, and educators navigate the racial and spatial politics of aspiration in the unequal and marketized schooling landscape of Cape Town, South Africa. She earned her Ph.D. in anthropology and education at Columbia University, Teachers College.

Publications:

• “Shareholder Schools: Racial-Capitalism, Policy Borrowing, and Market-Based Education Reform in Cape Town, South Africa.” In preparation for Comparative Education Review special issue, “Black Lives Matter and Global Struggles for Racial Justice in Education”.
• “Claiming Cape Town: Spatial Pedagogy, Black Geographies, and the Politics of Aspiration.” In preparation for Anthropology & Education Quarterly.
• Herbert, Amelia. Review of Progressive Dystopia: Abolition, Antiblackness, and Schooling in San Francisco, by Savannah Shange. Transforming Anthropology.

Media Appearances/Speaking Engagements:

• “Space, Place, and Aspiration in an Uneven Schooling Landscape.” Invited poster session, “Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research." American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting.
• “Shareholder Schools: Racial Capitalism, Policy Borrowing, and Marketized Schooling.” Paper presented at the Race and Capitalism Defined Symposium, Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, University of Chicago
• “Claiming Cape Town: Space, Place, and the Politics of Aspiration.” Paper presented at American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada. (Chair/Organizer, Council on Anthropology and Education Invited Session, “Forecasting Futures: Education as Speculative Practice”.)

Previous Organizations: 

• Columbia University
• Hunter College

Accomplishments:

• Chicago Ethnography Incubator Graduate Student Fellow. University of Chicago Department of Sociology
• American Dissertation Fellowship. American Association of University Women