The CSHE and the BSIEL presents The Life, Death, and Afterlife of Apocalyptic Education, part of the 2024-2025 Black Study in Education Lab Webinar Series.
This presentation explores the concept of "apocalyptic education" (AE), focusing on its phases of life, death, and afterlife, as a way of critically engaging with knowledge, memory, and Black experience. The presenters reflected on their shared journey since 2018 and their work on the Apocalyptic Ed podcast, using stories, music, and ceremony to honor sacred relationships and challenge dominant narratives of modernity. A central theme was their engagement with TIIR (telomere length as a biological marker of aging and stress), examining how environmental and social stressors impact Black health and longevity. Ultimately, the talk called for a deeper, ethical engagement with knowledge and being, envisioning new worlds through Blackness and collective memory.
Recorded Webinar
Featured Speakers
Kenjus Watson
Kenjus Watson is a father, partner, brother, uncle, and son who strives to honor ancestral ways of knowing, practice presences, and bridge more sustainable and loving relationships, projects, and educational futures. Kenjus works toward this calling in part through his role as Assistant Professor of Urban Education in the School of Education at American University. Kenjus also contributes time as an Earthen-based builder specializing in Super Adobe home construction as an instructor with the Cal-Earth Institute. Watson also collaborates alongside mutual and community responsive projects as research lead, educator, and co-founder of the Institute for Regenerative Futures in the College of Education at San Jose State University. Some of his remembering (i.e.d research) has focused on the biopsychosocial impact of everyday anti-blackness and colonizations (i.e. racial microagressions) on Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color, as well as the promise of school abolition, re-Indigenization, and Apocalyptic Education to bring about healing and wellness for people and the planet. Kenjus earned his Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis in Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Tiffani Marie
Tiffani Marie is the daughter of Sheryll Marie, the granddaughter of Dorothy and Annette Williams, and the great-granddaughter of Artelia Green and Olivia Williams. She is Cashmere Ina's mommy, an end-of-life practitioner, and a recovering academic. Coming from a long line of Arkansas educators, she is passionate about learning with and from youth, building with beloved communities, sewing, music production, and connecting with the natural world. Tiffani Marie also serves as the co-director of the Institute for Regenerative Futures and is a Professor of Teacher Education and Ethnic Studies at San Jose State University. Her research focuses on health disparities, anti-blackness as a social determinant of health, sacred relationship with death, and the dead body as a site of critical knowledge. Her broader research integrates theoretical frameworks and methods from public health, critical race studies, palliative care and education. her finding demonstrate that while schooling is a powerful indicator of health, it does not benefit all groups equally. Therefore, her work extends beyond promoting academic content mastery, focusing on health-based educational interventions that lead to increased educational opportunities and greater health outcomes for youth and communities.
