Karynecia Conner
Host of the Undisciplined PodcastDr. Karynecia (Kary-knee-see-yah) Elizabeth Conner is a teaching assistant professor of social studies at the University of Arkansas, jointly appointed to Curriculum and Instruction and African and African American Studies. Her perspectives of history are filtered through her work as a teacher educator. Her work uses the intersection between teacher activism and educational policy to inform her curriculum and teaching design.
She received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Baylor University in August 2023, her M.Ed. from the University of Texas at Austin, and her B.A. in Political Science with an emphasis on policy analysis from the University of Houston in 2014. She has taught 6-12 youth social studies domestically and abroad.
Karynecia's work on this podcast aims to make space for everyone on the couch to discuss education. Dr. Conner hosts Undisciplined, a podcast produced in collaboration with the university's African and African American studies program and KUAF.
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In this podcast episode, we discuss what is Black Horror and why it is important. The episode explores the intersection of Black bodies and the horror film genre, blaxploitation, and Black experience as horror using American films dating from 1915-2023. We also examine how Black narratives present reflections of power and identity through film relative to the time and space that created them.
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This episode explores the how one can think outside of the box of how museum exhibitions can be facilitated by utilizing digital humanities. Stevens talks about ways of reconceptualizing the display of African artifacts that are in institutions in the United States. Stevens bring virtual and augmented reality to the exhibition of African artifacts using a process of “affective curation,” which situate objects in their proper social, cultural and emotional contexts.
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This episode explores the activism of Black Teachers in the 1950s. When a number of teachers lost their jobs during the desegregation period, they sprang into action triggering the actions of the NAACP. As public education became a highly contested terrain, teachers moved to the forefront in this oft-forgotten chapter of the Civil Rights Movement.
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We talk with Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk, Uchenna Awoke about his debut novel, "The Liquid Eye of a Moon." Described as a modern day, A Nigerian Catcher in the Rye, Uchenna Awoke’s masterful debut breaks the silence about a hidden and dangerous contemporary caste system. The Liquid Eye of a Moon" is by turns hilarious and poignant, capturing all the messiness of adolescence, and the difficulty of making your own way in a world that seeks to oppress you.
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In this podcast episode, we speak to Michad Holliday a PhD student in education about his upcoming documentary that covers the massive educator exodus that is presently plaguing our public school system. He investigates the cause through a social justice lens, by connecting the initial southern exodus following the Sweat vs Painter and McLaurin versus Oklahoma State Regents higher learning cases, which set the precedent for the landmark, Brown V. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. He also explores how the 14th Amendment set off another public-school exodus and eventually what happened in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, "The Little Rock Nine" and cover Charter Schools and the privatization of public education, which has recently been exacerbated by the new Arkansas LEARNS Act.
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In this podcast episode, we tell you who we are as host and cohost, what Undisciplined is all about and in providing a brief breakdown of the upcoming season we highlight why you the listeners should tune in to us.
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In this episode, we shift the narrative of summer school from punishment to enrichment. Dr. Lakia Scott, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development & Diversity at Yale University, shares her experience as the Founding Executive Director of the Baylor Freedom Schools Program. This episode explores the program's enrichment impact on students, strategies for fostering successful collaborations with local school districts and other sponsors, and the logistical and cultural considerations in building the program and curricula. The program's unique focus on texts that explore citizenship, government, History, and culture as a pathway to expand African American students' access to educational enrichment, equity, and opportunity is particularly relevant in an education policy era that may be widening the opportunity gap.
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Historian, Angela Sutton, speaks to us about her groundbreaking new book, PIRATES OF THE SLAVE TRADE: THE BATTLE OF CAPE LOPEZ AND THE BIRTH OF AN AMERICAN INSTITUTION, in which she explores how a pivotal battle between the British navy and a notorious pirate crew, led by “Black Bart” Roberts, cleared the way for an explosion of the slave trade, the establishment of chattel slavery in the Americas, and the deadly racism that still permeates U.S. society. She also speaks to us about her current work at Fort Negley and what it means to do the work of breaking the barriers created by slavery, racism, and other inequities.
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In this episode, we chat with Victor Luckerson, journalist and author of Built From the Fire, recognized as a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times, is a multigenerational saga of a family and a community in Tulsa’s Greenwood district, known as “Black Wall Street.” Listeners can look forward to exploring the differences between the mythology about the Tulsa Race Massacre and the evidential facts of what occurred before, during, and after the massacre. Join us as we explore the connections between the forms of racial violence of the past and modern forms of racial violence enacted through policies like urban renewal and gentrification. Enjoy the lessons that critical figures of Black Wall Street have to teach us about women, Black love, wealth, and success.
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In this episode of Undisciplined, we explore the complexities, conscientious choices, and cultural considerations that impact the development of textbooks. American Historian, author, and academic Dr. Kathleen DuVal talks with us about how her interests in early American history led to her co-authorship on Give Me Liberty! We put the textbook in conversation with the current textbook culture throughout the United States, its use and relevance for curriculum and instruction in the 7-12 social studies classroom, and the topics yet to be explored. This episode is a fascinating dive into understanding how the everyday citizen should read, question, and analyze textbooks for their storytelling of truth versus fact.