Dr. Aireale J. Rodgers is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at UW-Madison’s School of Education. Drawing on frameworks from critical race studies and the learning sciences, Dr. Rodgers’ research aims to illuminate how faculty, staff, and students’ everyday (mis)understandings about race and racism influence learning in postsecondary education. She is also the Principal Investigator of the Racialization in Learning Environments (RILE) Collective—an intergenerational, justice-centered, and abolitionist research team that produces evidence-based insights for designing and facilitating liberatory learning environments across disciplines. Dr. Rodgers holds a B.S. in Social Policy and an M.A. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy (with a concentration in higher education) from the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.
When not thinking about equity and justice in higher education, Aireale spends time with her beloved partner and stepdaughter, hosts dinner parties, or scours books by brilliant Black women, such as Joy James, Octavia Butler, and Toni Morrison, for inspiration.
