Lisa R. Merriweather

Dr. Lisa R. Merriweather

My passion drives me to understand the realities of race, particularly through the lens of anti-Black racism in the education of adults. My journey has moved along a tumultuous path best described as Living While Black that compels me to increase the capacity of my teaching, quality of my research, and dedication to serving in response to the unique circumstances that engulf the lived experiences of Black and Brown people.

As an adult educator and qualitative researcher, I interrupt racial animus and its deleterious impacts that reverberate through the practice and theory of adult education. With Africana philosophical thought as foundation, I intentionally seek to build bridges of emotional, spiritual, physical, and cognitive understanding of the toll anti-Black racism exacts while creating opportunities for discernment and solutions for dismantling the oppressive systems and ideologies that not only uphold racism but seek to advance it. My desire is to shift the trajectory of racism from the realm of the paradoxical and unseen to being deferentially understood and viscerally felt. Employing the art of story and dialogic engagement, complete with creativity and innovativeness, emotionality and theorizing, and historical and contemporary cultural and political critique, I invite readers and interlocutors to a space of reflection through (re)presenting and (re)languaging racialized experiences.

Research Interests:

Culturally responsive mentoring, Critical race pedagogy, STEM doctoral mentoring, Race and racism in non/informal adult education.

Education:

Ph.D. – 2004, University of Georgia, Adult Education
Graduate Certificate -2004, University of Georgia, Qualitative Inquiry
M.Ed. – 1999, Morehead State University, Adult Education
B.A. – 1991, California State University, Long Beach, Psychology

Activities:

• Co-founder and co-editor of Dialogues in Social Justice: An Adult Education Journal
• Collaborative Research: AGEP North Carolina Alliance: An Institutional Transformation Model to Increase Minority STEM Doctoral Student and Faculty Success (NSF funded)
• Consultant specializing in equity and inclusion in adult and higher education
• Aspiring writer of historical science fiction centering issues of race and racism