Khalil Anthony Johnson, Jr.

Khalil Anthony Johnson, Jr. is an Associate Professor and Chair of African American Studies at Wesleyan University. His is at the intersection of African American and Indigenous histories, with a focus on the historical role of schooling in shaping the global modernity. Dr. Johnson is currently finalizing his book manuscript, Schooled: A History of American Education and Empire, which is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press. His work explores the dual nature of schooling as both a tool of colonial dispossession and a potential tool for social change. Dr. Johnson is deeply invested in the future of liberal education. He views the classroom as a critical space for cross-disciplinary inquiry and is dedicated to fostering academic environments that challenge and expand foundational narratives. By bridging historical scholarship with pedagogical practices deeply informed by both Black Studies and Native American Indigenous Studies, he aims to cultivate higher education models that empower students to engage critically with the complex, overlapping histories of the United States. You can find his published essays and reviews in American Quarterly, American Historical Review, Native American and Indigenous Studies, Pacific Historical Review, and a forthcoming edited volume titled Campuses and Colonialism.