CEEMA SAMIMI
PhD, MSSW, MPA
Anti-racist research, critical pedagogy, abolition
CURRENT PROJECTS
UNSETTLING OBSERVATION: REIMAGINING DIGITAL SCHOOL SAFETY
With the transition to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, schools sought a way to maintain student safety through technological means. Districts around the country, including Minneapolis Public Schools, contracted with software companies such as Gaggle, which monitor and report on student activity and claim to keep students safe. However, the role of these technologies is increasingly being questioned by parents, teachers, and lawmakers. Concerns have been raised regarding student privacy, mental health, and disproportionate discipline in relation to surveillance software. The aims of this project are 1) To engage University of Minnesota students in a participatory design process, 2) To generate actionable solutions that address the concerns of student privacy, possible mental health impacts, and disproportionate school discipline related to student surveillance, and 3) To determine what additional data, research, or resources are needed to continue addressing the issues related to student surveillance.
PUSHED OUT AT HOME: EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF COVD-19 AND SYSTEMIC RACISM ON SCHOOL DISCIPLINE
Racial disproportionality in exclusionary school discipline, such as rates of suspension and expulsion, has been documented since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the social and political realities of COVID-19 and systemic racism are intertwined, both must be addressed in any efforts that seek to remedy the disproportionate impacts of school discipline. Additionally, interventions aiming to address inequity in school discipline outcomes, such as Positive Behavior Interventions and Support, Restorative Practices, and Social-Emotional Learning, may not be practical during virtual learning. This study will examine the experiences of students, parents, and teachers through descriptive phenomenology, which seeks to understand what it is like to undergo a particular experience. This data will then be used to conduct further research informing adaptions to whole-school interventions during virtual learning.
PUBLICATIONS
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PICANDO PIEDRAS: PICKING AT THE ROCKS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE UNDER THE NONPROFIT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.
The Nonprofit Industrial Complex (NPIC) is the contemporary manifestation of social service provision in the United States. The question of how activists persist in their work despite the structural barriers the NPIC imposes on social justice organizations has yet to be given a full examination. This grounded theory study relies on interviews with people working in social justice nonprofits and presents themes of survival and critique when working within this structure. The findings indicate that belief in change, personal experiences with social justice, and a non-traditional view of self-care contribute to navigating social justice work in the nonprofit sector.
The authors approach this paper from their own positionality, incorporating their experiences at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI) while pursuing their doctoral education into a discussion of colonialism throughout the United States’ educational system. This manuscript conceptualizes education as a tool of assimilation when viewed through the settler narrative. Utilizing the concepts of Tribal Critical Race Theory and Historical Trauma, education is revealed as a from of settler colonial narrative, displacing and erasing Indigenous people.
FUNDING AMERICA'S NONPROFITS: THE NONPROFIT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX'S HOLD ON SOCIAL JUSTICE
Private nonprofits are increasingly relied upon to provide social services in
the United States. As these nonprofits professionalize and look to the government and foundations to fund their work, communities may be deprived of services they need in order for the agendas of funders to be carried out. By examining the rise of the nonprofit as an institution in the United States, this article examines how social justice has been separated from social service provision by the system that has come to be known as the Nonprofit Industrial Complex.
CURRENT COURSES I TEACH
Fall Semesters
Spring Semesters
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University of Minnesota School of Social Work
Peters Hall, 1404 Gortner Ave, Falcon Heights, MN 55108
(612) 301-0039