Bakari Wallace
Biography
Starting in fall 2024, Bakari Wallace, PhD, became an assistant professor at the Wayne State University, School of Social Work. He completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in community-based research. Specifically, his research focuses on how racial-structural paradigms like antiblackness shape the experiences, perceptions, knowledge, and behaviors of those who identify, and are identified as, Black men and boys. For example, his dissertation explored the link between personal histories of a select group of Black fathers, their perceptions of how society views Black men, and, subsequently, their approach to the racial socialization of their children.
Broadly, as an interdisciplinary scholar, his research interests range from the effects of mass incarceration on the Black community, police and prison abolition, Black youth civic participation, Black radical social movements, and historical methods of Black radical community organizing.
Hailing from Detroit, MI, he professionally practiced as a clinical substance abuse counselor in the juvenile justice domain. Additionally, his teaching record reflects his research interests, wherein he instructed a graduate-level course titled Social Justice in Social Work at North Carolina A&T State University and co-instructed an undergraduate-level course titled Protest, Policing, and Social Justice Movements at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Degrees and Certifications
- PhD – University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Human Ecology, Civil Society & Community Research
- MSW – University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, School of Social Work, Community & Social Systems
- BS – Wayne State University, School of Business, Advertising & Marketing Communications
Awards and Honors
- Advanced Opportunity Fellow 2015-2018, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Community-Based Initiative Scholar 2012-2014, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
- Wheeler Family Memorial Scholarship 2012-2013, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Teaching Interests
- Social Justice
- Community Organizing
- Social Movements
- Black Radical Tradition
Research Interests
- Antiblackness
- Critical Race Theory/Studies
- Black Male Studies
- Black Fatherhood
- Community-Based Participatory Action Research
- Carceral/Prisoner Reentry Studies
- Police and Prison Abolition
- Community-based Program Evaluation
- Youth-of-Color Community Organizing
- Youth-of-Color Participatory Action Research