Kristen Jackson

My research focuses on the phenomenon of Black displacement by neighborhood in Oakland, and how one school aims to provide a haven for Black mothers to forge community amidst a context intent on displacing, and erasing, Black community. Through this lens, I study the impact of an in-school program for Black mothers and their children, and the extent to which this program generates a protective barrier against forces that push Black people out of their communities, and their schools. My proposed research takes an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods approach, fusing anthropology, sociology, Black studies, and urban education, to the study and exploration of Black community mothering for sustainability. The project will examine Oakland’s rampant gentrification and Black displacement, and its impact on Black mothers’ collective navigation of continued precarious conditions in schools. At its core, this work questions what it means to survive in community.