Bettina Love
Dr. Bettina Love is an expert in Hip Hop–based education, Black girlhood, diversity and social justice, Hip Hop feminism, and critical media literacy. Her work as an author, teacher, public speaker, researcher, and educational advocate meets at the intersection of education reform, anti-racism, carceral studies, abolition, and Black joy.
Dr. Love is the Georgia Athletic Association Endowed Professor in Education at the University of Georgia, where she advances the field of education’s understanding of systemic and structural racism in public education in the United States.
When she is not teaching, Dr. Love works directly with neighborhoods and activists to build communal, civically engaged schools that are rooted in loving and affirming Black and Brown children. This work extends to her role as a co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network, a community with the mission to “develop and support teachers and parents to fight injustice within their schools and communities.” She is also the creator of the Hip Hop civics curriculum GET FREE.
Dr. Love is the author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, a work that American author Bell Hooks said “challenges and dares us all to teach for justice.” Her second book is titled Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and the Politics in the New South. Dr. Love’s words have appeared in the journals Educational Researcher and The Urban Review, on NPR and in The Guardian, and in highly sought-after speaking engagements. In 2017, she was selected to lead a one-on-one public lecture with bell hooks focused on the liberatory education practices of Black and Brown children.
In 2020, Dr. Love was named a member of the Old 4th Ward Economic Security Task Force with the Atlanta City Council, whose goal is to bring guaranteed income and income stability to Black women residents of Atlanta. Earlier this year, the Task Force distributed more than $13 million to Black women living in Atlanta’s Old 4th Ward as a part of the new program In Her Hands. Because of her work, this year the Kennedy Center named Dr. Love one of the Next 50 Leaders who are making the world a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate place.
In 2018, Georgia’s House of Representatives presented Dr. Love with a resolution for her impact in the state. In 2016, she was named the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. In 2014, Dr. Love was invited to the White House Research Conference on Girls to discuss her work focused on Black Girls.
Dr. Bettina Love is an expert in Hip Hop–based education, Black girlhood, diversity and social justice, Hip Hop feminism, and critical media literacy. Her work as an author, teacher, public speaker, researcher, and educational advocate meets at the intersection of education reform, anti-racism, carceral studies, abolition, and Black joy.
Dr. Love is the Georgia Athletic Association Endowed Professor in Education at the University of Georgia, where she advances the field of education’s understanding of systemic and structural racism in public education in the United States.
When she is not teaching, Dr. Love works directly with neighborhoods and activists to build communal, civically engaged schools that are rooted in loving and affirming Black and Brown children. This work extends to her role as a co-founder of the Abolitionist Teaching Network, a community with the mission to “develop and support teachers and parents to fight injustice within their schools and communities.” She is also the creator of the Hip Hop civics curriculum GET FREE.
Dr. Love is the author of We Want to Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom, a work that American author Bell Hooks said “challenges and dares us all to teach for justice.” Her second book is titled Hip Hop’s Li’l Sistas Speak: Negotiating Hip Hop Identities and the Politics in the New South. Dr. Love’s words have appeared in the journals Educational Researcher and The Urban Review, on NPR and in The Guardian, and in highly sought-after speaking engagements. In 2017, she was selected to lead a one-on-one public lecture with bell hooks focused on the liberatory education practices of Black and Brown children.
In 2020, Dr. Love was named a member of the Old 4th Ward Economic Security Task Force with the Atlanta City Council, whose goal is to bring guaranteed income and income stability to Black women residents of Atlanta. Earlier this year, the Task Force distributed more than $13 million to Black women living in Atlanta’s Old 4th Ward as a part of the new program In Her Hands. Because of her work, this year the Kennedy Center named Dr. Love one of the Next 50 Leaders who are making the world a more inspired, inclusive, and compassionate place.
In 2018, Georgia’s House of Representatives presented Dr. Love with a resolution for her impact in the state. In 2016, she was named the Nasir Jones Hiphop Fellow at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. In 2014, Dr. Love was invited to the White House Research Conference on Girls to discuss her work focused on Black Girls.