Hidden Truths: Stories of Race and Place in New England and Beyond: “Educational Segregation and Inequality in Rhode Island”
Join us Tuesday, April 16 at 7:00 p.m. for "Educational Segregation and Inequality in Rhode Island" with Nicole Dyszlewski, Taino Palermo, Samuel Filiaggi, Monica Teixeira de Sousa, and Kerri Ullucci
Join community leaders from the School of Law and School of Humanities, Arts and Education for a discussion of the history of racial segregation and race-based inequality in education in Rhode Island and a celebration of and call for greater agency on the part of Black and POC parents and communities to advocate for their children.
Presenters
Monica Teixeira de Sousa is a Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law where she teaches Property, Family Law, and Race & the Foundations of American Law. Prior to joining the RWU Law faculty in 2022, Monica was a tenured professor at New England Law | Boston where she created and served as the director of the First Generation Students Program. Before her academic career, Professor Teixeira de Sousa was a staff attorney at Rhode Island Legal Services, where she began practicing in 2002 as a Skadden Fellow and created a school-based legal clinic at her former elementary school in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. She represented parents and students in school discipline and special education cases, as well as public benefits and eviction defense matters.
Nicole P. Dyszlewski currently serves as the Director of Special Programs, Academic Affairs, for the Law School. She originally joined the staff of the law school as the Research/Access Services Librarian in 2015 having come from a public legislative library before becoming the Head of Reference, Instruction, and Engagement in the law library prior to accepting her current position. She received a B.A. from Hofstra University, a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. She is a member of the Massachusetts State Bar and the Rhode Island State Bar. Prior to becoming a law librarian, Nicole practiced real estate law. Her areas of interest are DEIB pedagogy in law school, mass incarceration, and access to justice.
Dr. Taino Palermo is an educator and advocate working to address issues in policy and practice in the areas of organizational leadership, community and economic development, and urban education over the last twenty years. Dr. Palermo served as department chair of both the Community Development and Healthy Communities degree programs at Roger Williams University’s University College where he founded the state’s first and only graduate degree in Community Development. In 2019, Dr. Palermo left that role to pursue a law degree at Roger Williams University School of Law to better advocate for the Taino Indians of Puerto Rico. n 2022, Dr. Palermo co-founded the Center for Indigenous Peoples Rights, the east coast’s first and only pro bono law and policy center focused on the rights of indigenous peoples. Dr. Palermo’s areas of specialty include community and economic development, American Indian and international indigenous peoples rights, and education policy and practice reform.
Dr. Kerri Ullucci was born and raised in Rhode Island. She is a former elementary teacher and has been licensed to teach in RI, MA and CA. In her last classroom position, she was a fourth grade teacher in South Providence. Dr. Ullucci is currently a professor of diversity and equity in education. Her research interests include race and poverty issues in schooling and the development of culturally relevant teaching practices. Dr. Ullucci has been published in several journals, including Urban Education, Race, Ethnicity and Education and Teacher Education Quarterly. She also prepares K-8 teachers for urban schools. Her book (with co-author Joi Spencer) Anti-Blackness at School: Creating Affirming Educational Spaces for African American Students was published in 2022, through Teachers College Press.
Samuel Filiaggi (he/him) is a 2L at Roger Williams University School of Law. From Batavia, Illinois, he graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 2019 where he majored in marine affairs and minored in oceanography. Samuel also came out as a transgender man at the end of his undergraduate career. He eventually decided to attend law school in order to practice marine environmental law and advocate for social change. At RWU Law, he is enrolled in the Honors Program, the President of the Phi Alpha Delta chapter, the Treasurer for the LGBT+ Alliance, and on the Student Title IX Committee. As a research assistant to Professor Monica Teixeira de Sousa, Samuel investigates how BIPOC communities advocate for their education, which includes desegregating, ensuring adequate funding, and representing their experiences in curriculum. In the summer after his 1L year, Samuel was a legal intern for the Rhode Island Center for Justice on their housing team. There, he assisted attorneys with clients facing eviction, poor conditions, and other housing-related situations where individuals would not ordinarily have access to representation. When not studying law, Samuel enjoys nature photography, baking, sea chanteys, and taking care of his guinea pigs Cannoli and Biscotti.
Link to view on Zoom:
https://rwu.zoom.us/j/99317273988
The Co-Lab
The Co-Lab @ RWU is pleased to present Roger Williams University's fourth annual Hidden Truths: Stories of Race and Place lecture series. This series features the research and policy work of RWU faculty and staff and community members that resurfaces untold histories and complicates received knowledge and understandings of our collective pasts. The series engages the university community and the public in deeper understandings and informed dialogues around how past inequities continue to impact societal and cultural realities and disparities today. It is sponsored by the Co-Lab, the Office of the President and the Provost’s Office.
All lectures will take place virtually and will be available for later viewing, making the presentations modular and accessible to work into courses. To view past presentations in the series, visit RWU’s YouTube channel.
All members of the campus community and the general public are welcome to attend these virtual conversations.