Jamila Lyiscott recognized as Spotlight Scholar
Web content and documents that are archived prior to April 2026 may not be fully accessible. If you encounter an issue with this content, please request an accessible version.
Jamila Lyiscott, assistant professor of social justice education, is being recognized as a 2019-20 UMass Amherst Spotlight Scholar.
Growing up as a first-generation American in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn, Lyiscott learned how to navigate the contrasts between her family鈥檚 Caribbean background and an educational system that demanded assimilation.
鈥淚 was an A-student only because I knew how to do school,鈥 recalls Lyiscott, now an assistant professor of social justice education in the UMass Amherst College of Education, a senior research fellow at Columbia University鈥檚 Teacher鈥檚 College, and a nationally renowned spoken word artist.
Learn more on the .