Hunter Holt

Hunter Holt

Assistant Professor, Education
Education

[email protected]

Education

  • Ph.D., Social Foundations of Education, University of Virginia
  • M.A., Curriculum and Instruction, University of Mississippi
  • B.A., English, University of Alabama

Teaching Interests

I teach courses on the history and politics of U.S. education and prepare teacher candidates for the education profession. In my courses, students study education through interdisciplinary lenses and reflect on the deeper purposes that underpin schooling and policy. Based on my training in social foundations, I want students to think critically about how education intersects with broader cultural, social, and political forces. I especially enjoy teaching at Muhlenberg because I see it as a means to empower students and future educators with a stronger sense of agency and autonomy. Prior to Muhlenberg, I taught high school science and coordinated the Mississippi Teacher Corps at the University of Mississippi. I credit this work for teaching me how to better support students and teacher candidates.  

Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests

As a historian of U.S. education, I study interactions between schools, policy and metropolitan spaces. My scholarship examines these relationships within political and economic contexts and uses the past to inform issues in the present. I am currently working on a book project that examines the history of development, schools, and wealth in Williamson County, Tennessee.

I also have experience in oral history. I am interested in this type of research because it often adds overlooked and underrepresented stories into historical narratives. For five years, I was a research assistant for the Teachers in the Movement oral history project at the University of Virginia. In that role, I conducted, edited, and analyzed oral history interviews with teachers who taught during the civil rights movement.

  • Educational Research
  • FYS: Civil Rights Movement & Education
  • History & Politics of American Education

Publications

  • Heinecke, Walter, Sarah Beach, Hunter Holt, Alexis Johnson, and Kristan McCullum. “A ‘Good’ University: Community-based Critical Participatory Action Research, University-Community Relations, and Affordable Housing.” In Handbook of Critical Education Research: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Emerging Approaches, 344-355. Edited by Michelle D. Young and Sara Diem. New York: Routledge, 2023.
  • McCullum, Kristan and Hunter Holt. “‘We Experienced Our Freedom’: The Impact of Valued Segregated Spaces on Teacher Practice and Activism.” In Schooling the Movement: The Activism of Southern Black Educators from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Movement, 76-90. Edited by Derrick Alridge, Jon Hale, and Tondra Loder-Jackson. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2023.

Conferences Presentations

  • Hunter Holt, “‘Our Kids Are Different’: Conservative Organizing and Curricular Partnerships,” History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA, 2023.
  • Hunter Holt, “‘A Hard Scuffle to Travel On’: Displacement, Desegregation, and Local Politics in Williamson County, TN,” Urban History Association, Pittsburgh, PA, 2023.
  • Hunter Holt, “Examining the Politics and Policies of Overcrowded Schools,” American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL, 2023 (accepted; unable to attend).
  • Hunter Holt, “‘We Are Taking on the Burden’: Managing Growth, Wealth, and School Finance,” History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, 2022.
  • Derrick Alridge, Hunter Holt, Kristan McCullum, “Critical Histories: Why Do They Matter and How Do We Find Them,” Educating for Democracy Conference: Using Developmental Science to Shape K-12 Students Into Justice-Oriented Students, Charlottesville, VA, 2022.
  • Hunter Holt, “Schools, Space, and the Political Economy of Educational Inequality,” American Educational Research Association, Virtual Conference, 2021.

Other Presentations and Workshops

  • Derrick Alridge and Hunter Holt, “How to Find Primary Sources,” Resisting Silence: BuildingK-12 Classroom Communities for Developmentally Appropriate Civic Discourse around Race, Justice, and History, Educating for Democracy Conference, Charlottesville, VA, 2023.
  • Alexis Johnson, Sarah Beach, Hunter Holt, Kristan McCullum, “Whose Neighborhood is it Anyway?” Collective Learning Series on Affordable Housing, School of Education and Human Development’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Virginia, 2022.
  • Alexa Rodríguez, Danielle Wingfield-Smith, Hunter Holt, Kristan McCullum, “Conducting Oral Histories: Communities, Race, and Education,” History of Education Society Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, 2022.
  • Derrick Alridge, Hunter Holt, Kristan McCullum, “Critical History and the Stories of Our Past,” Educating for Democracy Conference: Using Developmental Science to Shape K-12 Students Into Justice-Oriented Students, Charlottesville, VA, 2022.


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