Laura Porterfield

My research and work examines equity and justice practices in K-16 education by exploring how students learn about various forms of difference across the human experience through visual texts and urban space and place. Significantly, my research reveals the important role that visuality, affect, space and place play in the learning processes of youth of color in the 21st century context, and how visuality and affect impact the disproportionate use of punitive disciplinary mechanisms on Black and other youth of color. The findings of my research also reveal that visual markers of social, cultural, geographic, and economic status, style, comportment, and dress play important roles in creating inclusive visual school cultures, and more generally, safe school spaces for youth of color. 

Publications

• Mawhinney, L., and Porterfield, L. (2020). Unpacking and complicating the ethics and pedagogy of visual studies with youth. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 42(3). doi: 10.1080/10714413.2020.1770025.

• Porterfield, L., Nix, T., Cançado, L., Linneman, N. (2019). Advancing the Field of Urban Education: Recruiting, Promoting and Retaining High Quality Educators for Urban Districts. Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention (Eds. Rinke, C., and Mawhinney, L.).

• Porterfield, L. (2017). (Re)Seeing Black Girls: Intersections of Liberalism, Difference, and the Hidden Curriculum. Visual Studies, 32(4), 301-312. doi: 10.1080/1472586X.2017.1363637

Media Appearances/Speaking Engagements:

• Porterfield, L., Mawhinney, L., & phillips, a.a. (2023). Picturing the World: Exploring Community Scholars’ Meditations on Race, Place, and Politics in New Jersey. Paper presented at the XIIth Race, Ethnicity, and Place Conference & Middle Atlantic Division of the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.

• Porterfield, L. (2023). Invited Panelist: Care and Caregiving in the Academy. Institute for Research on Women. Rutgers University.

• Porterfield, L., Fields, C., Mawhinney, L., & Rinke, C. (2023). The Storied Experiences of Teachers of Color through Photovoice. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Visual Sociological Association, Multimedia University of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya.

Previous Organizations

• The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

• Derute Consulting Cooperative

• The UW-System Institute for Urban Education

Accomplishments

• Spencer Educational Research Foundation, Senior Personnel, The Storied Experiences of Teachers of Color through Photovoice, $50,000. Funded.

• Porterfield, L. Seeing Wellness: Exploring the Radical and Transformative Care and Wellness Practices of 21st Century Justice and Diversity Leaders. Institute for the Study of Global and Racial Justice. Rutgers University-Newark. $8,000. Funded.

• Mawhinney, L., and Porterfield, L. (Co-PIs). Picturing the world: A Visual Methods Community Workshop. Center for Race and Politics in America. Rutgers University- Newark. $10,000. Funded.

Upcoming Projects

• Porterfield, L. (Under Review). “What is the Truth?:” On Teaching Paradoxes, Race, Family, and the Self with Octavia Butler’s Kindred. (Submitted to Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies Special Issue: Science Fiction and the Cultural Politics of Education).

• Porterfield, L. (Under Review). Black Girls (Re)Seeing Urban Schools: Visual, Affective, and Discursive (Re)Conceptualizations of Safety. (Submitted to Urban Education).

I am principally concerned with the way(s) various forms of human difference - but especially race and gender - impact urban visual landscapes for youth and other People of Color.