Amber M. Neal-Stanley
Assistant Professor
Curriculum Studies,
Curriculum and Instruction
Email:
neal123@purdue.edu
Address:
Steven C. Beering Hall of
Liberal Arts and Education
100 N. University Street
West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2098
BRNG 4158
About
Amber M. Neal-Stanley, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University. Her research agenda sits at the intersection of Black education studies, critical qualitative inquiry, and faith as a vehicle for educational transformation. Raised in Detroit Public Schools and by the Black church, Dr. Neal-Stanley’s work is deeply informed by her lived experiences as a student, as well as her professional background as a social worker and public elementary school teacher. She is committed to preparing diverse students to confront structural inequities, (re)member Black radical traditions, and engage in humanizing pedagogical and research practices. Her recent scholarship has been published in Curriculum Inquiry, Religion & Education, Equity and Excellence in Education, and Qualitative Inquiry.
Education
- Ph.D. — Educational Theory and Practice, University of Georgia
- M.S.W. — Social Work, University of Georgia
- B.S. — Human Development and Family Studies, Bowling Green State University
Career Experience
- 2022 – present
Assistant Professor, Curriculum Studies
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
College of Education, Purdue University - 2022
Instructor, Elementary Education
Department of Educational Theory and Practice
College of Education, University of Georgia
Research & Publications
Selected Publications
- Christy Wessel-Powell, C., Hogue, B., Pennington, C., Lathrop, B., & Neal-Stanley, A.M. (2025). Parents’ Rights and the “Dangers of Critical Race Theory” for Children: More Than Spots & Stripes. Equity & Excellence in Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2025.2500361
- Neal-Stanley, A. (2025). (Re)membering the ecology of the self. The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching, 6(1), 108-135. https://doi.org/10.31046/5by5j079
- Neal-Stanley, A.M. (2025). Digital collage portraiture: An artful self-inquiry into the archive. International Review of Qualitative Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/19408447251319427
- Neal-Stanley, A.M., Morgan, J.A., & Allen, D.J. (forthcoming). The religio-spiritual capital of the Black Church: A conceptual model for combatting antiblackness in the early years. Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
- Neal-Stanley, A.M. (forthcoming). (Black) digital humanities for educational history: A technology of recovery in the age of artificial intelligence and antiblackness. American Educational History Journal.
- Lyiscott, J., Smith, P., Neal-Stanley, A.M., Harris Garad, B., Caraballo, L., Hoskins, J., Green, K., & Wallace, D. (2024). In Spirit and in Truth: (Re)searching Christianity and Racial Liberation in Education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2024.2348801
- Neal-Stanley, A.M., Duncan, K., & Love, B. (2024). “A brief moment in the sun”: Mapping white backlash in the history of K-12 Black education in the United States. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 26(1), 31–56. https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v26i1.3901
- Neal-Stanley, A.M. (2024). “God meant I should be free”: Historical Black women teachers and the womanist theo-ethical imperative of abolition. Educational Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2024.2307898
- Neal-Stanley, A.M. (2023). The fugitive spirit of historical Black women teachers: Theorizing hush harbors as praxis. Curriculum Inquiry, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2023.2285758
- Neal-Stanley, A.M. (2023). Out of the mouths of babes: Testimonies of Black student experiences in a modern-day segregation academy. Religion & Education, 50(4), 320-347. https://doi.org/10.1080/15507394.2023.2247306
- Neal-Stanley, A.M. (2023). Black feminist (Re)constructions of education in the afterlife of abolition: An invitation. Equity and Excellence in Education, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2023.2262489
- Dillard, C.B. & Neal, A.M. (2021). Still following our North Star: The necessity of Black women’s spiritual (re)membering in qualitative (re)search. Qualitative Inquiry.
- Neal, A.M. & Dunn, D.C. (2020). Our ancestors’ wildest dreams: (Re)membering the freedom dreams of Black women abolitionist teachers. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 35(4), 59-73.
- Dillard, C.B. & Neal, A.M. (2020). I am because we are: (Re)membering Ubuntu in the pedagogy of Black woman teachers from Africa to America and back again. Theory into Practice, 59(4), 370-378.
Courses Typically Taught
- EDCI 59100 — Critical Theory in Education
- EDCI 61500 — Qualitative Research Methods in Education
- EDCI 61600 — Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis in Educational Research
- EDCI 68400 — Seminar in Curriculum Studies (History of Black Education in the U.S.)