Kevin Lam, Ph.D.
Professor, Urban & Diversity Education; Director of Social Justice in Urban Education Concentration
School of Education
Phone: 515-271-2324
Email: kevin.lam@drake.edu
Office: CS 123
Biography
Areas of Expertise
- Vietnamese/Asian American Youth
- Youth Violence
- Critical Theories of Racism
- Critical Pedagogy
- Urban Education
- Cultural Studies
- Political Economy
Education
- B.A. University of California-Los Angeles
- M.A. California State University-Los Angeles
- Ph.D. University of Illinois-Urbanna-Champaign
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 I
- Cultural Proficiency II
- 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
Selected Publications
- Co-editor, The Selected Works of Antonia Darder: On Theory, Politics, and Struggle (Bloomsbury, 2025)
- Co-editor, The Critical Pedagogy Reader (4th 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 (2nd edition) (Bloomsbury, 2024)
- [Reprint] “Theories of Racism, Asian American Identities, and a Materialist Critical Pedagogy,” in The Critical Pedagogy Reader (4th edition) (Routledge, 2023)
- “The Exigency of Radical Class Politics: A Personal Journey,” in On Class, Race and Educational Reform (Bloomsbury, 2023)
Honors & Professional Memberships
- 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
- American Educational Studies Association
- American Educational Research Association