Ford, Derek R., Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education Studies, Chair of the Education Studies Department and Coordinator of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program
I am associate professor of philosophy and history of education, and teach courses on how education has, does, and can help us imagine, struggle for, and enact liberatory ways of being together in the world. My courses depend on and inform my research interests, which are quite varied but generally focus on the relationships between education and political movements. If you like podcasts, I think the brilliant hosts of Nothing Never Happens helped me articulate the larger picture of my work in this interview.
I've written a few books, the latest of which is Teaching the actuality of revolution: Aesthetics, pedagogy, and the sensations of struggle (you can hear about on Revolutionary Left Radio). Until the next round of cutbacks come, I am deputy editor of the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies and associate editor of Postdigital Science and Education. My scholarship appears in a range of sholarly journals and popular outlets. I hosted and co-created the podcast series, Reading Capital with comrades, which takes listeners through volume 1 of Marx's magnum opus and is available on all major streaming platforms, and helped write and produce the mini-documentary, "26 years too long: Vernon T. Bateman's fight for freedom."
What moves my research and teaching also moves my organizing. I serve as the editor of Liberation School and chair of the Hampton Institute's education department. I am Coordinator of Free Shaka Shakur, Education Department Chair at the Hampton Institute, and an organizer with the the Indianapolis Liberation Center and the International Manifesto Group, among others.
You can see my cv here.
CLASSES
EDUC 170: Foundations of education
EDUC 197: We can't breathe: Identity, capitalism, and air conditions
EDUC 197: Urban revolutions: Space, capitalism, and social change
EDUC 197: The politics of sound: Education and the struggle over listening
EDUC 223: Deconstructing difference
EDUC 275: Radical philosophy and education
EDUC 290: Education, space, and urban revolution
EDUC 290: Art, politics, and education: Unlearning and the aesthetics of struggle
EDUC 325: History of American education
EDUC 360: Political economy of schools
EDUC 390: Pedagogy in the 'post-truth' era
EDUC 390: Philosophy and alternative educational spaces
EDUC 390: Critical disability studies: Disordering education and society
EDUC 480: Educational research
EDUC 490: Senior research seminar
UNIV 183: (North) Korea in Japan: Colonialism and education
UNIV 184: The Baltimore Rebellion: Anatomy of an uprising
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
(click here for a complete list)
* denotes DePauw student/alum
Co-authored with students
- Ford, D., & Chaparro, D. (2024). (Un)learning aesthetics: Pedagogy and the perceptual ecology of class struggle. Critical Education, 15(1), 1-14.
- Pappachen, M.S.*, & Ford D. (2023). Historical materialism: A postdigital philosophical method. In P. Jandric, A. MacKenzie, & J. Knox (Eds.), Postdigital research: Genealogies, challenges, and future perspectives. New York: Springer.
- Ford, D., Swenson, K*, & Fosher, M*. (2022). From the knowable and transparent individual to the secret thought of individuation: An anti-capitalist postdigital ecopedagogy. In P. Jandric & D. Ford (Eds.), Postdigital ecopedagogies: Genealogies, contradictions, and possible futures. New York: Springer.
- Ford, D., & Sasaki, M.* (2022). The multitude beyond measure: Building a common stupor. Educational Philosophy and Theory, (54)7, 938-945. (republished in A.J. Means, A. Sojot, Y. Ida, and M. Sustarsic (Eds.). (2023). Empire and Education. New York: Routledge.
- Pappachen, M.*, & Ford, D. (2022). Spreading stupidity: Disability and anti-imperialist resistance to bio-informational capitalism. In M. Peters, P. Jandric, and S. Hayes (Eds.), Bioinformational philosophy and postdigital knowledge ecologies. New York: Springer.
- Ford, D., & Esposito, M.* (2021). Aesthetic encounters beyond the present: Historical materialism and sonic pedagogies for resisting abstraction. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, 19(3), 32-55.
- Ford, D., & Sasaki, M.* (2021). Listening like a postdigital human: The politics and knowledge of noise. In M. Savin-Baden (Ed.), Postdigital humans: Transitions, transformations, and transcendence. New York: Springer.
- Ford, D., Waalkes*, A., Wilcek, S.*, & Cooprider, C.* (2019). An introduction, a wager: Long live radical philosophy and education! In D. Ford (Ed.), Keywords in radical philosophy and education: Common concepts for contemporary movements. Boston: Brill.
Books
- Ford, D. (2023). Teaching the actuality of revolution: Aesthetics, unlearning, and the sensations of struggle. Madison: Iskra Books.
- Ford, D. (2022). Communist study: Education for the commons, 2nd ed. Lanham: Lexington Books. (1st ed. published 2016).
- Ford, D. (2022). Encountering education: Elements for a marxist pedagogy. Madison: Iskra Books.
- Ford, D. (2021). Marxism, pedagogy, and the general intellect: Beyond the knowledge economy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Ford, D. (2021). Inhuman educations: Jean-Francois Lyotard, pedagogy, thought. Boston: Brill.
- Ford, D. (2019). Politics and pedagogy in the "post-truth" era: Insurgent philosophy and praxis. London: Bloomsbury.
- Ford, D. (2017). Education and the production of space: Political pedagogy, geography, and urban revolution. New York: Routledge
Edited books
- Jandric, P., & Ford, D. (2022). Postdigital ecopedagogies: Genealogies, contradictions, and possible futures. New York: Springer.
- Ford, D. (2019). Keywords in radical philosophy and education: Common concepts for contemporary movements. Boston: Brill. (*with editorial assistants Anneliese Waalkes '20, Savannah Jo Wilcek '20, and Clayton Cooprider '19)
- Ford, D., & Malott, C. (2019). Learning with Lenin: Selected works on education and revolution. Charlotte: Information Age Publishing.
- Means, A., Ford, D., & Slater, G. (2017). Educational commons in theory and practice: Global pedagogy and politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Porfilio, B., & Ford, D. (2015). Leaders in critical pedagogy: Narratives for understanding and solidarity. Boston: Brill-Sense.
- (2023). From "authentic" to actual marxist educational theory: Advancing revolutionary pedagogies. International Critical Thought, 13(4), 506-524.
- (2023). Art, education and the actuality of revolution: Althusser's aesthetic materialism. International Journal of Education Through Art, 19(2), 261-273.
- (2023). Sonic directions to the urban student: Lyotard, the Megalopolis, and not listening as pedagogy. Contemporary Music Review, 42(2), 426-440.
- (2023). Rhythmanalysis and the revolutionary rupture of detournement: Lefebvre and the pedagogical rhythms of post-fordism. Postdigital Science and Education, 5(20, 440-454.
- (2023). The actuality of revolution: Marxist education and the commons. Nothing Never Happens.
- (2023). Breaking through U.S. propaganda on North Korea. CovertAction Magazine Bulletin.
- (2023). Political imagination and teaching the actuality of revolution. By Any Means Necessary.
- (2023). Teaching the actuality of revolution: Unlearning, aesthetics, and the sensations of struggle. Revolutionary Left Radio.
- (2022). Jandric, P., Peters, M.A., Ford, D.R., & Hayes, S. (2022). Biodigitalism and postdigital futures. Collective Intellectualities.
- (2022). Paulo Freire's legacy: Rethinking how we teach and learn. By Any Means Necessary.
- (2021). Marx and Capital with Derek Ford. A Different Lens.
- (2021). Understanding Marx's Capital with Liberation School. Revolutionary Left Radio.
- (2021). Reading Capital with Derek Ford. People's Pulse Radio.
- (2020). MSM speculation debunked as Kim Jung-Un healthy. By Any Means Necessary.
- (2020). 'Inherent anarchy:' U.S> capitalist housing system leaves 1.5 million students homeless. Loud & Clear.
- Ford, D. (2024). "It'll always be George:" Introducing a new Black August series. Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign. (Mandarin translation here).
- Grillo, J., & Ford, D. (2024). The state can’t isolate the imagination: Vernon T Bateman and the struggle to free them all. Hampton Institute.
- Ford, D. (2023). The "Powell Memo" and the Supreme Court: A counteroffensive against the many. Black Agenda Report (reprinted in Hampton Institute, Monthly Review, New Cold War, originally appeared in Liberation School).
- Ford, D. (2023). Against the 'compatible' radical academic left: Rethinking racism and capitalism. PESA Agora.
- Ford, D. (2023). Defending 'our schools:' Koreans in Japan face continued racism. The International Magazine (Japanese translation published in Choson Sinbo).
- Ford, D. (2023). The "Manifesto of the Communist Party" at 175 years: Same audience, different conjuncture. Peace, Land, and Bread (reprinted in International Manifesto Group, Hampton Institute, New Cold War).
- Ford, D. (2022). Studying society for the working class: Marx's first preface to "Capital." Monthly Review.
- Ford, D. (2021). Paulo Freire's centennial: Political pedagogy for revolutionary organizations. Orinoco Tribune.
- Ford, D. (2021). The base-superstructure: A model for analysis and action. Hampton Institute.
- Springer, D., & Ford, D. (2021). Walter Rodney's revolutionary praxis: An interview with Devyn Springer. Liberation School.
- Brown, N., & Ford, D. (2021). Teaching politically and the problem of Afropessimism. Black Agenda Report.
- Majidi, M., & Ford, D. (2021). Clarifying and inspiring revolution for 130 years: Marx's "Critique of the Gotha Programme." Liberation School (Türkçe translation published in Marksizm Bibliyotegi).
- Ford, D. (2020). The colonial gaze in overdrive: The latest rumors and allegations about the DPRK. Hampton Institute.
- Ford, D., & Malott, C. (2020). Engels on the housing question: Wishful thinking vs. real solutions. Liberation School. (Portuguese translation printed in Tradu Agindo).
- Ford, D. (2019). The struggle of "American Anger:" In defense of extremism. Aspeers.
- Ford, D. (2017). Against zombie intellectualism: On the chronic impotency of public intellectuals. Hampton Institute.
- Ford, D. (2015). Studying in the streets: The pedagogy of throwing bottles at the cops. Black Agenda Report.
- Ford, D. (2015). Air and the politics of resistance. Aggregate.
- Pfohl, S., & Ford, D. (2015). Art as theory (online curated exhibition). Oranbeg Press.
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University, 2015
M.S., Cultural Foundations of Education, Syracuse University, 2012
B.A., Peace Studies, Goucher College, 2008