Archaeology of Self

Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Ph.D. is Professor of English Education at Teachers College, Columbia University and the recipient of the 2024 Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumna Award from New York University. Yolanda is co-editor of All About Black Girl Love in Education: bell hooks and Pedagogies of Love (2024), co-author of Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces (2021), and author of two poetry books: Love from the Vortex & Other Poems and The Peace Chronicles. She is founder of the Racial Literacy Project @TC. Yolanda has been featured in documentaries by Spike Lee and CWK Network.

• Part 1: Excavating the Self: Racial Literacy as a Process and Way of Being 1. Growing Up Bronx: Racial Literacy Lessons from My South Bronx Beginnings 2. From Self-Discovery to Collective Change: The Journey to Racial Literacy 3. Doing the Work Where We Are: Advancing Racial Literacy in Education 4. The Archaeological Approach to Teaching 5. Archaeology of Self as Practice: An Invitation to Teachers Part 2: Excavating the Heart of Teaching, Learning, and Becoming 6. Layers of the Self: Uncovering Teacher Identity 7. An Artful Journey: Excavating Identity and Bias Through (Un)Final Multimodal Storytelling Projects 8. Towards Critical (Self) Love Part 3: Excavating Truth, Healing, and Justice: The Work of Self and Community 9. Archaeologists of the Self: Addressing Trauma, Healing, and Growth 10. Reconstructing Self and Community for a Just Future 11. Preparation Meets Purpose: A National Call for Racial Literacy Lesson Plans 12. Racial Literacy Lesson Plans 13. Artifacts, Tools, and Resources

“Written with passion and the brilliance of a poet, Archaeology of Self is an ode to the life of a scholar who is not afraid to embrace her vulnerability as she bares her soul, shares her insights and offers guidance to others on how to use scholarship as a weapon for justice during these difficult times. For readers searching for a jolt of hope during these dark times, this book will be just what you need.”– Pedro Noguera, Distinguished Professor of Education, Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean, University of Southern California"In the words of DJ Khaled, 'and another one' describes this stunning work of Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz where she once again recognizes the power of helping teachers and students understand the significance of excavating the self. This inner digging is the key to understanding what it means to be raced and how race circumscribes the world in which we live."– Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor Emerita and formerly the Kellner Family Distinguished Professor of Urban Education, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin–Madison“As a parent of two gorgeous and inquisitive Black children and mentor to many others, I am grateful for Dr. Sealey-Ruiz’s book, Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator’s Guide to Racial Literacy. She is a master storyteller, who has beautifully written a book that meticulously interrogates what it means to be a racially literate educator who leads with love. Archaeology of Self is an instant canonical text that should be required for all school boards, administrators, school district professional development plans and teacher education programs.”– LaGarrett King, Professor of Social Studies Education, University at Buffalo’s Graduate School of Education“In Archaeology of Self, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz has written a profoundly moving and necessary book that opens new pathways in the field of education and racial literacy. With deep scholarly insight and powerful storytelling, she crafts an illuminating and compassionate voice that speaks directly to the heart of what it means to teach with integrity and love. Sealey-Ruiz is a magician with language, transforming generational wounds of racism into an invitation to heal and grow. The first chapter alone is a masterclass in narrative power, blending personal memory, historical context, and cultural critique, and culminating in a poem that lingers long after reading. This book is a luminous offering of critical love. I urge anyone to whom that notion speaks to read it.”– Minna Salami, Writer and author of Sensuous Knowledge and Can Feminism Be African? “Dr. Sealey-Ruiz's new book Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator’s Guide to Racial Literacy lives at the intersection of liberatory education, racial identity and addressing collective trauma. Informed by a lifetime of pioneering work in teacher education she offers a systematic, hands-on roadmap for the urgent inner work of our time. This book will fast become a seminal work for educators, healers and activists alike.The prose is deeply intimate, poignant and soaring and at the same time her clarion call demands gritty dedicated exploration of societal shadows. Everyone who cares about a more just and inclusive future will be well served to attend to the innovative set of distinctions and practices offered here by one of the leading voices in healing centered education globally. This book is embodied wisdom, hard won and long lived, that sears into your heart and asks us all to rise up together. It powerfully envisions the classroom as a place of truth-telling, reckoning and reconciliation.This is not a book one reads but a journey one undertakes, so catalytic in scope one emerges renewed and rewired from her transmission.”– Amy Elizabeth Fox, Chief Executive Officer, Mobius Executive Leadership“As a scholar who is the embodiment of critical love, Sealey-Ruiz provides clarity and concrete pathways for educators to engage the continuous process of excavation needed for us to examine belief systems that undergird our teaching. In an increasingly polluted educational environment where educators, children, curriculum, and truth are under attack, reading this book is fresh air that makes it possible for us to breathe as we engage in the work of cultivating liberatory learning environments.”– Sonja Cherry-Paul, Educator, New York Times bestselling author, Co-founder of the Institute for Racial Equity in Literacy“In Archaeology of Self, Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz does what only the brilliant can: she excavates the soul of education with poetry, prose, and unapologetic humanity. Merging scholarship with spirit, she offers ancestral truth through her work on racial literacy and leads those whose quest is to reshape classrooms with radical love. This is not just a guide; it is a mirror, a map, and a movement in one. This work is as remarkable as she is, and is a must read.”– Christopher Emdin, Professor of Science Education, Maxine Greene Chair for Distinguished Contributions to Education, Teachers College, Columbia University“Through her lived experience, critical love, and humble generosity, Yolanda invites us into a transformative practice that reveals truth, unearths histories, and calls us to integrity in community. Anyone who encounters her knows: she lives the work. This text is a gift for the yearning—those ready to reflect, reckon, and reimagine how we show up for ourselves and each other.”– Maria Tan, Facilitator & Consultant, Acosta Institute and Drisana McDaniel, Facilitator, Consultant & Creator of The Alchemy of Now Acosta Institute“Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz brings this transformative text to life with stories of her own racial literacy development and self-discovery: as a child in the South Bronx, as a student, a teacher, a parent, a scholar, and as a whole human who continues to dream. Written in warm, honest prose, Archaeology of Self: The Introspective Educator’s Guide to Racial Literacy truly IS a love letter to teachers, a love offering to students, and an invitation to anyone who understands that education is the key to liberation. There’s room for everyone at this table. Dr. Sealey-Ruiz lets us know that we don't grow alone, we don’t have to brave this “grieving world” alone, and we find each other through our wounds, our truths, our histories, and love.”– Kia Darling-Hammond, Educator, author, advisor, and CEO"In Archaeology of Self, Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz offers an extraordinary blueprint for educators committed to racial literacy and transformative teaching. Drawing from her South Bronx roots and weaving together scholarly precision with profound personal narrative, she demonstrates that critical, justice-centered love must be the foundation of educational transformation. Her archaeology of self-concept provides educators with essential tools to identify and disrupt the biases that inhibit our ability to see and nurture the genius in every child.”– David Johns, CEO & Executive Director, National Black Justice Collective“Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz is the architect of a formidable methodology for radical community healing for educators and all professionals interested in activating powerful alchemical transformation in their lives to rise from the harm and violence of oppression towards a future of empowered collective liberation. Her framework for introspective self-understanding counteracts the negative impact of systems of racialized hierarchy and offers a roadmap through which we might find our way back to our own humanity through storytelling, empathy and loving-awareness.”– Sará Yafah King , Neuroscientist, CEO and Co-Founder of MindHeart AI