Bianca J. Baldridge

Scholar. Educator. Youth Advocate.

Bianca J. Baldridge is an Assistant Professor in the department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She earned her PhD in Sociology and Education from Columbia University-Teacher’s College. Her scholarship explores the socio-political context of community-based youth work and afterschool education. Bianca’s research critically examines the confluence of race, class, and gender, and its impact on educational reforms that shape community-based spaces that engage youth of color. She explores the organizational and pedagogical practices employed by youth workers/community-based educators amidst neoliberal education restructuring. Her forthcoming book, with Stanford University Press, Reclaiming Community: Race, Politics, and the Uncertain Future of Youth Work, examines how the privatization of public education undermines Black community-based organizations’ efforts to support comprehensive youth development opportunities. Bianca’s research has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Review of Research in Education, Teachers College Record, Contemporary Sociology, and Race, Ethnicity, and Education. Bianca’s experiences as a community-based youth worker in domestic and international contexts continues to inform her research in profound ways.