Joseph Derrick Nelson
Associate Professor
On Leave - Academic Year
Educational Studies
Black Studies
Gender & Sexuality Studies
Contact
Affiliations: Gender & Sexuality Studies, Educational Studies, Black Studies
*On leave for the 2026/2027 academic year.
Joseph Derrick Nelson, PhD is a writer, teacher-educator, and sociologist of race, gender, and education. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Studies at Swarthmore College, where he is also the inaugural Chair of the Black Studies Department.
He is Research Director of the School Participatory Action Research Collaborative at the University of Pennsylvania—a school partnership organization that facilitates youth-led research in single-sex schools to advance race and gender equity. He is also a Research Affiliate with the Gordon Institute for Advanced Study (GIAS) and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Sociology and Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Previously, he has held visiting professorships at Teachers College, New York University, and Bard College.
Nelson's research examines how schools can become (re)imaginative and liberatory institutions for Black children and youth, particularly Black boys during childhood and early adolescence. To date, his research has focused primarily on single-gender schools and classrooms serving Black and Brown boys, exploring how race and gender stereotypes shape identity development, educational opportunity, and academic success among high-achieving Black boys from neighborhoods with concentrated poverty.
His research projects have led to publications with Teachers College Record, the Harvard Educational Review, the Psychology of Men and Masculinities, and co-editing (with Michael Reichert, PhD) a special issue on boys’ education with the Journal of Boyhood Studies. His book project under contract with Harvard Education Press is entitled, (Re)Imagining Black Boyhood: Portraits of Academic Success during the Middle School Years. He also co-edited (with Edward Fergus, PhD) the forthcoming volume with Routledge, Boyhood in America: Development, Institutions, and Public Policy.
Nelson's scholarship has been featured in Harvard Magazine, The Washington Post, Yale’s The Politic, The Atlantic, NEA Today, and on National Public Radio. He has delivered invited lectures and presented his research throughout the United States and internationally, including at the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Sociological Association (ASA), the White House Summit for Children's Media and Toys (during the Obama Administration), the Ideas Festival of the Aspen Institute, the American Educational Studies Association (AESA), and the International Boys' Schools Coalition.
With support from the Spencer Foundation and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Nelson co-founded (with Niobe Way, EdD) The Listening Project: Fostering Curiosity and Connection in Middle Schools—a school-based initiative that trains middle school students and educators in “Transformative Interviewing” (Way & Nelson, 2016). Its goal is to: (1) cultivate a mode of listening and interpersonal curiosity among middle schoolers that challenge how race and gender stereotypes contribute to negative peer relations, and (2) facilitate building a middle school culture that is rooted in interpersonal connection and community.
Nelson's leadership extends across scholarship, professional organizations, and public engagement. In 2021, he became the inaugural Fellow of the Boys' Club of New York, and he is a member of the Task Force on Boys In School with the American Psychological Association. He is Editor (with Kristen Barber, PhD and Tristan Bridges, PhD) of the journal Men and Masculinities, and Book Review Editor of Boyhood Studies. Within AERA, he was previously Co-Chair of Division G, Section 2 (Differences and Intersectionalities), and he serves on the boards and advisory councils of several national and international organizations, including the American Institute for Boys and Men (AIBM), the Partnership for Male Youth, Equimundo: Masculinities and Social Justice, Advocates for Youth, and Next Gen Men.
Prior to Swarthmore, he held postdoctoral fellowships with the Ford Foundation and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. In the high-poverty neighborhood where he grew up in Milwaukee, he was a classroom teacher himself, within a co-ed elementary school that had a single-sex intervention for a first-grade cohort of Black and Afro-Latinx boys.
He lives in New York City and Philadelphia.
Selected Publications
Books:
Fergus, E., & Nelson, J.D. (forthcoming). Boyhood in America: Development, Institutions, and Public Policy. (Eds.). New York: Routledge.
Nelson, J.D. (under contract). (Re)Imagining Black Boyhood: Portraits of Academic Success during the Middle School Years. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Stahl, G., Nelson, J.D., & Wallace, D. (2017). Masculinity and Aspiration in the Era of Neoliberal Education: International perspectives. (Eds.). New York: Routledge.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
Dumas, M., & Nelson, J.D. (2016). (Re)Imagining Black Boyhood: Toward a critical framework for educational research. Harvard Educational Review. 86(1). p. 27-47.
Nelson, J.D. (2016). Relational Teaching with Black Boys: Strategies for learning at a single-sex middle school for boys of color in New York City. Teachers College Record. 118(6). p. 1-30.
Nelson, J.D., Stahl, G., & Wallace, D. (2015). Race, Class, and Gender in Boys' Education: Repositioning Intersectionality theory. Culture, Society, and Masculinities. 7(2). p. 12-32.
Way, N., Cressen, J., Bodian, S., Preston, J., Nelson, J.D., & Hughes, D. (2014). "It might be nice to be a girl... Then you wouldn't have to be emotionless:" Boys' resistance to norms of masculinity during adolescence. Psychology of Men and Masculinity. 15(3). p. 241-252.
Reichert, M., & Nelson, J.D. (2012). Reproduction, Resistance, and Hope: The promise of schooling for boys. Journal of Boyhood Studies. 6(1), p. 4-15.
Reichert, M., Nelson, J.D., Heed, J. Yang, R., & Benson, W. (2012). “A Place To Be Myself:” The critical role of schools in helping boys be boys. Journal of Boyhood Studies. 6(1), p. 54-75.
Nelson, J.D., & Vidale, D. (2012). Helping Boys Take Flight: A peer-mentoring program for boys of color at the Riverdale Country School. Journal of Boyhood Studies. 6(2), p. 219-223.
Book Chapters:
Nelson, J.D. (2018). Teaching Black Boys During Childhood: A counter-narrative and considerations in Michael, A. (Eds). A Guide For White Women Teaching Black Boys. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications (Corwin).
Way, N., & Nelson, J.D., (2018). The Listening Project: Fostering curiosity and connection in middle schools (Chapter 11) in Way, N., Ali, A., Gilligan, C., Noguera, P. (Eds.). The Crisis of Connection: Causes, consequences, and solutions. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Reichert, M., & Nelson, J.D. (2018). I Want To Learn From You: Relational strategies to engage boys in school (Chapter 14) in Way, N., Ali, A., Gilligan, C., Noguera, P. (Eds.). The Crisis of Connection: Causes, consequences, and solutions. New York, NY: New York University Press.
Nelson, J.D. (2017). “I Want To Be A Soccer Player Or A Mathematician:” Fifth-grade boys of color aspirations at a "neoliberal" single-sex school in Stahl, G., Nelson, J.D., & Wallace, D. (Eds.) Masculinity and Aspiration in the Era of Neoliberal Education: International perspectives. New York: Routledge.
Fergus, E., w/ Nelson, J. (2014). Assumptions and Strategies: A model for "saving" boys of color. In Fergus, E., Noguera, P., & Martin, M. Schooling for Resilience: Improving the life trajectories of Black and Latino boys. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press.
Courses
EDUC 023: Adolescence
EDUC 061: Gender and Education
EDUC 062: Sociology of Education
EDUC 033: Black Education
EDUC 031: Race, Boyhood, and Education
