Christopher B. Knaus, Ph.D.
About
Degrees
Introduction
Dr. Christopher B. Knaus serves as Professor of Education at the University of Washington Tacoma. A race scholar and critical race theory practitioner, Dr. Knaus examines how systems of intersectional oppression (racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, islamophobia, and related interwoven oppressions) shape schools, districts, colleges, and ideas of learning that intentionally silence students, educators, communities of color and those who differ from presumed and violently enforced white middle class hetero norms. In short, Dr. Knaus challenges that most ways of doing school and college (grading, competition, western knowledge regurgitation, dominance of standardized English, knowledge standards) are based in capitalism-affirming white supremacist anti-Blackness.
Dr. Knaus also works to foster educational leadership pathways, including educator of color preparation and support programs that transform towards radically humanistic, critically conscious, creative, localized, decolonial educations. Dr. Knaus collaborates in South Africa, across the United States, and regionally on the West Coast.
Gumbo, M.T., Knaus, C.B. & Gasa, V.G. (2024). Decolonising the African doctorate: Transforming the foundations of knowledge. Higher Education: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-024-01185-2
Knaus, C. B., & Rogers-Ard, R. (2023). Critical race teacher leadership: Leading antiracist systems change. Urban Education (published online first): https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859231192083
Knaus, C. B. (2023). Disrupting whiteness as higher education: Towards a systemic decoloniality. International Journal of Educational Development in Africa (Online): https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/IJEDA/article/view/12109
Pocklington, A., Flanagan, E. J., & Knaus, C. B. (2023). Selling Graduation: Higher Education and the Loaning of Liberation. Essays in Education, 29(1), Article 6. https://openriver.winona.edu/eie/vol29/iss1/6/
Knaus, C. B. (2022). Educational Apartheid: Resisting Whiteness in South African Schools. In D. C. Hucks, Y. Sealey-Ruiz, V. Showunmi, S. C. Carothers, & C. W. Lewis (Eds), Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts: Implications for Access, Equity, and Achievement, 277-286. Information Age. https://www.infoagepub.com/products/Purposeful-Teaching-and-Learning-in-Diverse-Contexts
Knaus, C. B., Mino, T., & Seroto, J. (2022). Decolonising African Higher Education: Practitioner Perspectives from Across the Continent. New York: Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Decolonising-African-Higher-Education-Practitioner-Perspectives-from-Across/Knaus-Mino-Seroto/p/book/9780367745189
Webster, C., & Knaus, C. B. (2021). “I Don’t Think They Like Us”: School Suspensions as Anti-Black Male Practice. Journal of African American Males in Education, 12(1), 66-88. https://jaamejournal.scholasticahq.com/article/22064-i-don-t-think-they-like-us-school-suspensions-as-anti-black-male-practice
Rogers-Ard, R., & Knaus, C. B. (2020). Black Educational Leadership: From Silencing to Authenticity. New York: Routledge. Accessible here: https://www.routledge.com/Black-Educational-Leadership-From-Silencing-to-Authenticity/Rogers-Ard-Knaus/p/book/9780367466138
Knaus, C. B., & Perkins, R. (2020). The virus of whiteness. Africa Is A Country, March 8, 2020. Retrieved at: https://africasacountry.com/2020/04/the-virus-of-whiteness
Rogers-Ard, R., Knaus, C. B., Bianco, M., Brandehoff, R., & Gist, C. ( 2019). The Grow Your Own Collective: A Critical Race Movement to Transform Education. Teacher Education Quarterly, 46(1), 23-34. https://www.gyocollective.org/uploads/1/1/9/4/11945381/the_grow_your_own_collective_a_critical_race_movement_to_transform_education_teacher_education_quarterly__winter_2019.pdf
Kennemer, C., & Knaus, C. B. (2019). Towards Compassionate Care: A Critical Race Analysis of Teaching in Township Schools. Education as Change, 23, 1-21. Open access: https://upjournals.co.za/index.php/EAC/article/view/5995
Knaus, C. B., & Brown II, M. C. (2018). The absence of indigenous African higher education: Contextualizing whiteness, post-apartheid racism, and intentionality. In M. C. Brown II & T. E Dancy II (Eds.), Black colleges across the Diaspora: Global perspectives on race and stratification in postsecondary education (Advances in Education in Diverse Communities: Research, Policy and Praxis, Vol. 14), 263-288. Emerald Publishing.
Knaus, C. B. (2018). “If Everyone Would Just Act White”: Education as a Global Investment in Whiteness. In J. Brooks and G. Theoharis (Eds.), Whiteucation: How Privilege, Power and Prejudice is Destroying School and Society. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Knaus, C. B. (2017). Push Out: Racial Dynamics at a Turnaround School. Rethinking Schools, 31(2), 34-37.
Knaus, C. B. (2017). “A Fairy Tale in a Song is No Message”: Leadership Lessons from Oliver Mtukudzi and The Black Spirits. In T. Watson, F. Beachum, & J. Brooks (Eds.), Educational Leadership and Music, 137-148. Information Age Publishing.
Knaus, C. B., & Brown, M. C, II (2016). Whiteness is the New South Africa: Qualitative Research on Post-Apartheid Racism. New York: Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1051570
Knaus, C. B. (2016). “We Talk But We Don’t Say Shit”: Education and the Silencing of Voice. In T. Marsh & N. Croom (Eds.), Envisioning a Critical Race Praxis in K–12 Leadership Through Counter-Storytelling, 3–23. New York: Information Age Publishing.
Chetty, R., & Knaus, C. B. (2016). Why South Africa's Universities Are in the Grip of a Class Struggle. The Conversation, 1/13/2016: http://theconversation.com/why-south-africas-universities-are-in-the-grip-of-a-class-struggle-50915
Marsh, T., & Knaus, C. B. (2015). Fostering Movements or Silencing Voices: Learning from Egypt and South Africa, Leading Against Racism. International Journal of Multicultural Education, Special Issue on Anti-Racist Leadership, 17(1), 188-210.
Available: http://ijme-journal.org/index.php/ijme/article/view/969/1039
Knaus, C. B. (2014). What if We All Wore Hoodies? Educational Silencing of Black Male Voices. In V. E. Evans-Winters & M. C. Bethune (Eds.), (Re)Teaching Trayvon: Education for Racial Justice and Human Freedom, 163-186. Boston, MA: Sense Publishers. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-6209-785-8
Knaus, C. B. (2014). Seeing What They Want to See: Racism and Leadership Development in Urban Schools. The Urban Review, 46(3), 420-444. Available here.
Rogers-Ard, R., & Knaus, C. B. (2013). From Colonization to RESPECT: How Federal Education Policy Fails Children and Educators of Color. ECI Interdisciplinary Journal for Legal and Social Policy: Vol. 3(1), 1-32. Available at: http://ecipublications.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1020&context=ijlsp
Knaus, C. (2013). Developing Urban Youth Voice: A Framework for Culturally Responsive Classrooms. In R. Brock & G. S. Goodman (Eds.), School Sucks! Arguments for School Change in Urban Education, 9-42. New York: Peter Lang. https://www.amazon.com/School-Sucks-Alternative-Educational-Psychology-dp-1433117053/dp/1433117053/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
Knaus, C. (2013). You Are the Ones Who Need to Hear Us: The Role of Youth Voice in a Democracy. In R. Brock & G. S. Goodman (Eds.), School Sucks! Arguments for School Change in Urban Education, 64-98. New York: Peter Lang. https://www.amazon.com/School-Sucks-Alternative-Educational-Psychology-dp-1433117053/dp/1433117053/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=
Knaus, C. B. (2011). Shut Up and Listen: Teaching Writing that Counts in Urban Schools. New York: Peter Lang. https://www.peterlang.com/document/1108588
Knaus, C. B. (2006). Race, Racism, & Multiraciality in American Education. Washington DC: Academia. https://www.amazon.com/Race-Racism-Multiraciality-American-Education/dp/1933146265