Carmen Kynard

Carmen Kynard is a Professor and Lillian Radford Chair of Rhetoric and Composition at Texas Christian University’s AddRan College of Liberal Arts. Her work centers Black feminisms, AfroDigital cultural practices, and anti-racist pedagogies. She previously taught at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY Graduate Center, focusing on race, literacy, and urban education.

Kynard’s research interrogates the intersections of race, language, and education, particularly through digital projects like Black Feminist Pedagogies and Funkdafied. She advocates for Black linguistic justice and challenges white supremacist structures in academia. Her award-winning book Vernacular Insurrections

Her current projects include studies on young Black women in higher education and decolonial pedagogies. Kynard’s digital initiatives (e.g., Black Language Syllabus) emphasize community-centered scholarship. She has published in journals like College English and Composition Studies, and her work addresses urgent issues like AI’s impact on education and Palestinian solidarity.

Awards include the 2023 Richard Ohmann Award and recognition in Community Literacy Journal. Kynard’s activism spans DEI critiques, abolitionist frameworks, and visual descriptions of Black embodied knowledge. She maintains an influential website (carmenkynard.org) with over 2 million visits since 2012.