CULTURAL GIFTS
What do Black men bring into institutions, and what changes when those gifts are recognized?
SCHOLARSHIP · TEACHING · CULTURE
THINK
Questions that matter inside classrooms, communities and institutions.
RODERICK HURLEY · SCHOLAR / TEACHER
Ideas grounded in people’s lives
Rod is a doctoral candidate in Critical Social/Personality Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center and has taught psychology at the College of Staten Island since 2017.
His current research examines cultural gifts, success and belonging among Black male students and faculty at CUNY. His teaching and public work connect psychology with culture, community and everyday life.
Questions worth staying with
BELONGING
How relationships, classrooms and institutions shape belonging.
TEACHING
Making room for what students already know as they learn something new.
SUCCESS
Success looks different when we ask who succeeded, what helped, and which communities, practices and structures made it possible.
MUSIC + IDEAS
Lyrics, performance and sound can say a lot about identity, culture, memory and how people live together.
PUBLIC SCHOLARSHIP
Sharing research in everyday language.
WHAT ARE CULTURAL GIFTS?
Cultural gifts are the strengths, knowledge and ways of knowing people bring from their communities into academic life.
Rod developed this concept through his dissertation research.
Invite a conversation →THE CLASSROOM IS PART OF THE WORLD
Students bring knowledge, culture and lived experience from their communities into the classroom.
Invite Rod