Leslie Morrow

Leslie K. Morrow received her doctorate in educational policy studies from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She focused on social and cultural studies of education with minors in gender and women’s studies and queer studies. During her studies, Morrow also served as the university’s director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center.

Morrow’s research and praxis as a Black, queer academic explores the lived experiences, labor and strategies of resistance of historically marginalized, disenfranchised and under-resourced groups, especially Black queer and trans folks in higher education. She has published in the journal Women, Gender and Families of Color and has a forthcoming article in a special issue of that journal honoring bell hooks’ legacy.

Morrow uses qualitative-based frameworks and methods that include autoethnography and participant observation with an intentional focus on anti-Blackness, queer pedagogies, equity and justice as they relate to educational policy and leadership.

Her work is interdisciplinary in nature, informed by Black Feminisms, Queer of Color Critique and Critical Race Theory. It offers an alternative approach to doing/thinking about research that relies on Black Feminist/Radical knowledge traditions, utilizing an affective stance of feeling or being different that challenges dominant discourses of normativity and professionalism within higher education.

• PhD, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021
• MS, College Student Personnel, Miami University, 2008
• BA, Political Science, Miami University, 1993

• Access and Equity
• Cultural Studies
• Education Policy
• Equity
• LGBTQ+ Studies
• Multicultural Education
• Social Justice
• Women's Studies

Morrow’s research and praxis as a Black, queer academic explores the lived experiences, labor and strategies of resistance of historically marginalized, disenfranchised and under-resourced groups, especially Black queer and trans folks in higher education. Current projects include publishing dissertation chapters and research for a potential short book project.

• Morrow, L. K. (under review). Toward our Black queer joy(ous) futures: Achieving our freedom in the academy. Theory, Research, and Action in Urban Education. https://traue.commons.gc.cuny.edu/call-for-submissions/ 
• Morrow, L. K. (in press). What bell hooks taught me... Women, Gender & Families of Color: Special Issue Honoring the Legacy of bell hooks. https://womengenderandfamilies.ku.edu/cfp/cfp-honoring-bell-hooks-legacy-humanist-feminist- public-intellectual-social-critic-and-educator/ 
• Morrow, L. K. (2021). Between graduate school and diversity worker: My Black queer survival in the academy. Women, Gender & Families of Color. Retrieved from https://womengenderandfamilies.ku.edu/uncategorized/crosstalk/between-graduate-school-and- diversity-work-my-black-queer-survival-in-the-academy/ 

• “The Day all the Different Part of [US] Can Come Along: Black Queer Revolutionary Selfhood.” American Educational Studies Association, Pittsburgh, PA. Panelist. November 2022.
• “In Our Own Words: Stories of How We Get Free in the Academy.” American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. Facilitator. April 2020 [Conference Canceled due to COVID] 
• “On Being Black, Brown, and Queer: We are in a State of Emergency!” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA. Panelist. November 2018 
• “A Drop of Pepper in a Sea of Salt: Queer Bodies of Color, A Diversity Taboo.” American Studies Association Annual Conference, Chicago, IL. Panelist. November 9-12, 2017 
• “Spill in Conversation with Lauryn Hill.” International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Annual Conference, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Urbana, IL. Facilitator. May 2017.