Dr. Jerome E. Morris
E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Urban Education at the University of Missouri-St. Louis
Jerome serves as the Principal Investigator and Director of the Center for Communally-Bonded Research, also in St. Louis. His interdisciplinary and empirically-based scholarship examines the institutional structure and culture in schools, provides innovative conceptual frameworks to study marginalized communities, and cultivates meaningful partnerships with communities and schools.
A former vice-president of the American Educational Research Association, Jerome has been at the forefront of highlighting the centrality of the U.S. South in African-Americans’ experiences, examining public school desegregation, and rebuilding viable urban communities and schools. He was awarded the prestigious Lyle M. Spencer Research Award from the Spencer Foundation to investigate the development of his theory of Communally-bonded Schooling. Morris’ groundbreaking book, Central City’s Joy and Pain: Solidarity, Survival, and Soul in a Birmingham Housing Project is now available for pre-sale and will be published on January 15th, 2024. He is also the author of Troubling the Waters: Fulfilling the Promise of Quality Public Schooling for Black Children (Teachers College Press).
Jerome has published extensively in leading research and practitioner venues such as the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Educational Researcher, Review of Research in Education, Educational Policy, Urban Education, Kappan, and The Conversation.