Critical race theory revisited with speaker Prof Paul Warmington

Critical Race Theory Revisited: Brit-Crit’s Histories and Futures

Professor Paul Warmington from the University of Warwick 

Critical Race Theory has been an integral influence on the work of the Centre for Research on Race and Education since the Centre’s founding in 2013. But what is Critical Race Theory and how has it emerged from its US origins to become a presence in education in Britain over the past twenty years? In the aftermath of 2020’s Black Lives Matters protests and ensuing calls for global racial justice, several politicians and media commentators declared their sudden opposition to CRT. What does CRT really say about education, equalities policies and institutional racism? How does it relate to wider traditions in Black Atlantic thought? And why has it been drawn into current recriminations over race in Britain in 2021.

Biography

Professor Paul Warmington is one of the UK’s leading scholars in the sociology of race and education. He is Director of Research in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Warwick. He previously worked at the University of Birmingham, where he was a founder member of the Centre for Research in Race and Education, and the University of Nottingham. Before entering academia, he had careers in antiracist publishing and in further education.

Paul was one of the first UK academics to explore Critical Race Theory, combining it with wider traditions in Black Atlantic thought. He has written and researched on the coverage of race equality in UK education policy; Black/ white attainment gaps; tensions in understandings of race and class in social research. Paul has also researched on news media coverage of exam results; the uses of documentary film in educational research; cultural-historical activity theory; interprofessional and interdisciplinary work in children’s services; sociologies of education and work.

Paul is author of Black British Intellectuals and Education: multiculturalism’s hidden history(Routledge, 2014). His most recent publication is the four-volume series, Critical Race Theory in Education: Major Themes in Education, Vol 1-4 (Routledge, 2018), co-edited with  US and UK scholars: Adrienne Dixson, David Gillborn, Gloria Ladson-Billings, Laurence Parker and Nicola Rollock. He is a longstanding member of the editorial boards of the journals Educational Review and Race, Ethnicity and Education.

Paul’s work has been covered in The Guardian, Times Education Supplement and The Voice. He has recently contributed to BBC1’s landmark documentary Subnormal, on the historical scandal of the placing of Black children in ESN schools during the 1960s and 1970's.