Dr. Keon M. McGuire
What does it mean to be a Black young man in the 21st century? What are the standards by which we judge Black manhood and in what ways do we expect Black men to live out their masculinities? In the Black undergraduate men’s feminist (BUMF) research and learning community – and ongoing research project currently at the end of its third year – Black men (largely cisgender and heterosexual) wrestle with these various questions. At the core of this work is an invitation to reimagine manhood and transform our relationships to masculinities by learning from and with Black feminist and Black queer perspectives.
In this interactive session, Dr. McGuire will share insights from his ongoing work within the BUMF community related to the ways Black feminist and queer pedagogical practices of radical honesty (Williams, 2016) and embodied vulnerability (Hill, 2017) offers possibilities for Black men to reject and heal from patriarchy. Grounded in Cynthia Dillard’s call that we ‘cut to heal, not to bleed’, this session will offer opportunities for participants to reflect on and discuss ways educators can co-facilitate Black men’s journeys to repair the breach caused by patriarchy and White supremacy that steals us away from ourselves and denies us a way of living in just relations with Black women, trans*, and queer communities.
Keon M. McGuire (he/him/his) is an associate professor of higher and postsecondary Education in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College and a Faculty Affiliate with the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. His research considers how race, gender, and religion influence Black college students’ identities and educational experiences. Additionally, he examines the ways White supremacy and patriarchy undermine the experiences of minoritized college students as well as the ways students resist to such marginalization. Dr. McGuire holds a joint Ph.D. in Higher Education and Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in History from Wake Forest University and in 2019, he was named a National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow and ACPA Emerging Scholar.