UF Center for Latin American Studies
Dr. Busey bridges LAS, African American Studies, and Education, and serves as co-coodinator of the MALAS specialization, Education in the Americas.
February 18, 2022
This article was originally published in the Spring 2022 edition of The Latinamericanist. Read the whole issue here, or scroll below.
In 2017, when Dr. Christopher Busey made the decision to accept a position at the University of Florida, the opportunity to be affiliate faculty at the Center for Latin American Studies was a major reason he said yes. Five years later, Dr. Busey is the newest core faculty appointment at the Center, where he says he feels a “sense of belonging,” thanks to the collegiality among faculty, students, and staff.
“I feel welcome when I come to work,” he says. “I enjoy coming to the office, I get along well with my colleagues. Because the Center is a smaller space, I can have small talk conversations with colleagues in the hallways, I can see flyers for events we’re having, I can know a bit more about what my colleagues are doing, and what they’re studying.”
With additional appointments in Education and African American Studies, Dr. Busey’s research and teaching examines African diaspora in the Americas through the lens of education. But it’s the emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean that is particularly important to him, as the region is often omitted from the conceptualization of diaspora and education, in favor of U.S.-based perspectives. “My aim is to expand the geopolitical boundaries that are conjured when we talk about Blackness in the educational domain,” he explains. “Sometimes I’m looking at Afro-Latinxs in the United States relative to discourses of curriculum, teaching, and policies, but I’m also examining Black educational activism alongside histories of imperialism and colonialism in Panama, and how that looks different in contexts across Puerto Rico, Colombia, Nicaragua, or Brazil.”
This expansion of geopolitical boundaries illuminates one of the few adjustments Dr. Busey has made as core faculty at the Center. “A consistent type of question I get is, ‘Are you a Cubanist?’ or ‘Are you a Brazilianist?’” He chuckles. “I’m a Blackist. I’m concerned about Black folk everywhere. I try to think beyond the nation-state as the central unit of my analyses. While at times it is relevant to focus on a particular geopolitical context, the general thrust of my work is such that we can understand how Blackness is articulated and performed across the hemisphere as well as grapple with the transnational logics of anti-Blackness.”
Since joining the Center as an affiliate, Dr. Busey has co-established and serves as co-coordinator of the MALAS specialization “Education in the Americas,” together with Dr. Mary Risner. The specialization focuses on educational research, theory, and practice relevant to Latin America and Latinx communities in the United States, and seeks to prepare graduates for careers in education, public policy, academia, and transnational organizations. “My goal for this specialization is to cultivate an interdisciplinary approach towards understanding education as a political act,” Dr. Busey explains. “Education is bound with meanings of what it means to be human, and thus intertwined with issues of race and racism, gender, sexuality, and class. That’s an understanding I hope that students leave the specialization with, so that they can take a critical approach to education as an institution, but also be able to contextualize generative responses to the abject conditions that the institution of education can reproduce.”
Although Dr. Busey’s career is still young, he has already garnered acclaim for his cumulative body of work. In March, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) awarded him the 2022 Early Career Award for Social Studies Research. With over 25,000 members, AERA is the largest and most prominent education research organization in the U.S., encompassing over 150 special interest groups. “It is definitely meaningful to me, to know that I have peers in my field that hold my research in high esteem,” Dr. Busey reflects. “But I didn’t self-nominate; I’m not in this game to pursue awards.”
Nonetheless, there’s a gravity to the recognition – a result of the current political climate surrounding race and education in the United States. “At this moment, when the theories I use are on the chopping block, not just in the state of Florida, but across multiple states, it gives this award all the more meaning. I don’t shy away from what I do, but it can be easy to second-guess yourself.” He pauses. “To receive this award, in this moment? To me, in many ways, it confirms the meaning behind the work that I need to do, and I will continue to do.” ◆
