Dr. Jon Hale, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dr. Jon Hale is an associate professor of education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on the history of student activism and the intersection of race and educational policy. He is the award-winning author of The Freedom Schools: Student Activists in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, which won the 2017 New Scholars Book Award (American Educational Research Association, Division F, History) and the 2018 Critics Choice Book Award (American Educational Studies Association). He is also co-author of To Write in the Light of Freedom: The Newspapers of the 1964 Mississippi Freedom Schools. His new book, How Segregation, Race, and Power Have Shaped America’s Most Controversial Education Reform Movement (Boston: Beacon Press, 2021), examines the racist history of school choice.
Dr. Hale’s research has been published in journals such as the History of Education Quarterly, Labor History, and the Journal of African American History. His work has also been featured in outlets including The Atlantic, The American Scholar, the Chicago Tribune, CNN, and Education Week. Dr. Hale is also the recipient of numerous awards.