Kevin Lam, Ph.D.

Professor of Urban and Diversity Education, Director of Social Justice in Urban Education Concentration

Contact Information

Email: kevin.lam@drake.edu
Phone: 515.271.2324
Address: 2702 Forest Ave. Des Moines, IA 50311

Office: Collier-Scripps Hall 123

Education

B.A., University of California-Los Angeles

M.A., California State University-Los Angeles

Ph.D., University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign

Honors & Professional Memberships

Honors

• 2016 Critics’ Choice Book Award Recipient (for Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling:  Vietnamese American Youth in a Postcolonial Context), American Educational Studies Association

• 2013 Committee on Scholars of Color in Education, Early Career Scholars Fellow, American Educational Research Association

Professional Memberships

• American Educational Studies Association
• American Educational Research Association

Selected Publications

• Co-editor, The Selected Works of Antonia Darder: On Theory, Politics, and Struggle (Bloomsbury, 2025)
• Co-editor, The Critical Pedagogy Reader (4^th edition) (Routledge, 2023)
• Author, Youth Gangs, Racism, and Schooling: Vietnamese American Youth in a Postcolonial Context (Palgrave, 2015)
• Co-author, “The Indispensable Praxis of Antonia Darder: An Introduction,” in The Selected Works of Antonia Darder: On Theory, Politics, and Struggle (Bloomsbury, 2025)
• [Reprint] “Racism, Schooling, and the Streets: A Critical Analysis of Vietnamese American Youth Gang Formation in Southern California,” in Research and Reflections on Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement (Purdue University Press, 2025) 
• [Reprint] “Critical Perspectives in Youth Gang Formation in the United States,” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Race and Education (Oxford University Press, 2024) 
• “Beyond ‘Bread and Circus’: Reading and Teaching Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” in The Student Guide to Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (2^nd edition) (Bloomsbury, 2024)
• [Reprint] “Theories of Racism, Asian American Identities, and a Materialist Critical Pedagogy,” in The Critical Pedagogy Reader (4^th edition) (Routledge, 2023) 
• “The Exigency of Radical Class Politics: A Personal Journey,” in On Class, Race and Educational Reform (Bloomsbury, 2023)

Areas of Expertise

• Vietnamese/Asian American Youth
• Youth Violence
• Critical Theories of Racism
• Critical Pedagogy
• Urban Education
• Cultural Studies
• Political Economy

Courses Taught

• Seminar on Communication, Representation, and Cultural History
• Philosophies and Epistemologies of Education 
• Leadership, Multiculturalism and Social Justice
• Urban Arts Integration
• Critical Theory and Pedagogy (independent study) 
• Critical Theories of Racism (independent study)
• Applications for Teaching in Urban Schools (honors)
• Cultural Proficiency II 
• Cultural Proficiency I
• Urban Education and Immigration (honors)
• Social Context of Urban Schools (honors)
• Youth, Culture, and Society (honors)
• Foundations of Education
• Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity, and Gender