CHICAGO, IL — Another giant has fallen. Dr. William H. Watkins, life long proletarian revolutionary intellectual, died the evening of August 5th 2014.
Comrade Watkins was, for thirty-five years, a contributor to the People’s Tribune. The staff and all who knew and benefited from his years of steadfast contribution to the movement deeply and sadly miss him.
Much has been written about his remarkable professional journey from his birth-place in Harlem, through growing up in South Central Los Angeles to his final assignment as Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago.
“Bill’s areas of specialization include sociology of curriculum, African American education, history of curriculum, and curriculum movements. He was the editor of The Assault on Public Education: Confronting the Politics of Corporate School Reform (2012), author of Black Protest Thought and Education (2005), author of The White Architects of Black Education (2001) and lead editor of Race and Education (2001). In addition to many book chapters, his publications appeared in the (Macmillan) Encyclopedia of Education, Review of Research in Education, Journal of Interdisciplinary Education, The International Encyclopedia of Education, The International Encyclopedia of Curriculum, the Harvard Educational Review, Educational Theory, and the Encyclopedia of African American Education, Teaching Education, and Teaching for Social Justice, among others.
Bill presented his work throughout the United States: Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Uganda, Japan, Australia, Thailand, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Additionally, he traveled extensively throughout Western & Eastern Europe; the (former) Soviet Union; the Peoples Republic of China; India; the United Arab Emirates; the Caribbean; South America; Central America, (north) Vietnam, East, West and South Africa; and New Zealand.
Bill was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, Division B, American Educational Research Association (2011); The Mary Ann Raywid Award, the Society of Professors of Education (2011); and the Dean’s Merit Award, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago (2003).”
(The above paragraphs in quotes are from Ming Fang He, Ph.D, Professor of Curriculum Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago.)
In bidding a heartfelt farewell to Comrade Billy Watkins, we pledge to him, as we have to so many who fought before and beside him, “This fight will go on until we win!”
Hello,
I am a professor at CSUDH – a university in
“south central L. A.”
I teach Watkins’ in my sociology of education class. I inquire as to someone w/ whom I may speak – and possibly interview – about the life and work of William Watkins.
The aim is to bring life to the work and share that w my students so as to prepare them for the reading.
The contact information below can be used to contact me.
Very kindly yours,
Jose Prado, Ph. D.
Department of Sociology
CSU Dominguez Hills