This session will serve as the formal launch of the new Critical Geographies of Education Specialty Group. Given the urgency of the current political moment, this special launch session will engage education scholars and geographers in a discussion about the centrality of education in struggles for freedom, justice, and self-determination. Whether understood as the “final frontier” of gentrification (Hankins, 2007) or an essential element of social reproduction (Katz, 2008), schools increasingly serve as important sites of geographic inquiry, both in intellectual pursuits (Lipman, 2011) and in grassroots organizing (Huff, 2013; Kearns, Lewis, McCreanor, & Witten, 2009). Given the compelling associations between education and geography and an enduring disciplinary interest in various aspects of this relationship, we aim to foster conversation between those whose work has centered on education-related concerns, and scholars who have engaged with other related geographic issues. This session takes its cue from this year’s AAG location in New Orleans and the AAG’s theme of Black Geographies, paying particular attention to social movements and the role of struggle in education geographies in the context of racial capitalism (Gilmore 2002; McKittrick and Woods 2007; McKittrick 2011; Pulido 2016). As such, panelists will discuss possibilities (and limitations) of a cohesive subfield dedicated to the critical examination of geographies of education. Please join us as we continue to build space for critical geographies of education and support students engaged in this work. ​

photo from the Chicago Sun-Times of the 1963 Chicago public school boycott to contest segregation in city schools, with protest signs that read "are some more equal," "Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," and "support sit-ins."