Taharka Anderson

About Taharka Anderson

Taharka Anderson is a scholar-activist from Long Beach, CA, with over a decade of experience dedicated to supporting social and educational justice. His roles as a scholar, educator, organizer, and trainer have shaped his extensive background. As a 5th-year doctoral candidate in African & African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), his research generally concerns Western constructions of race and gender, Black education history and Black student experiences, the criminalization of Black life, and Black male vulnerabilities. More specifically, in his phenomenological dissertation he historicizes Black masculinity within Western patriarchal schooling contexts and interviews Black males attending a PWI and participating in a university-led men\'s support group, to retrospectively explore how they experienced, made sense of, and navigated punitive and exclusionary discipline in K-12. His project also explores the extent to which those past experiences shape their current beliefs and behavior as Black men. Over the past nine years, he has accrued diverse research experience working with scholars and collegiate administrators in Texas, Indiana, and California. While at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), he currently serves as a Graduate Student Mentor for the College of Liberal Arts Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program under the supervision of the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis. He is also a Graduate Assistant for UT’s Center for Teaching & Learning. Taharka has additionally been a Graduate Research Assistant on projects concerning the politics of Texas education, Black male introversion, the teaching of Texas slavery, and Black male education. During his doctoral studies, Taharka has gained a wealth of teaching and leadership experience. Since 2021, he has been a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Grader for UT’s dynamic student population in courses such as Numbering Race, Sociology of Education, Promise & Perils of U.S. Public Education, and Education in Contemporary Black America. As a primary support for the scholarly growth of students, in these roles, Taharka used critical pedagogies and collaborative learning to enhance students’ writing, research, and critical thinking abilities. He was also appointed by the African & African Diaspora Studies Department to serve as their Graduate Student Representative on UT\'s College of Liberal Arts Graduate Student Advisory Council and has been the Graduate Student Representative for the Black Studies Graduate Student Organization.

Experience

1. Research & Curriculum Development Specialist

   Afrikan Black Coalition

   Mar 2021 — Present

   Supervisor: Ma\'Ronda X, EdD

Education

• California State University, Long Beach

  Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Sociology & Africana Studies

  2009 — 2014

• California State University, Long Beach

  Master of Arts in Education (M.A.Ed.), Social & Cultural Analysis of Education

  2014 — 2018

• The University of Texas at Austin

  Doctor of Philosophy - PhD, African and African Diaspora Studies

  2020 — 2026