School of Education

Rachel McMillian, Ph.D, is a curriculum theorist and educational researcher whose work broadly explores two intersecting avenues: Black Education and Critical Prison Studies. More specifically–through counterstorytelling–she focuses on 1) the schooling and educational experiences of Black people who were (wrongfully) incarcerated as children/youth and, 2) Black liberatory education and curriculum that occurs within spaces of confinement and enclosure.

McMillian's interdisciplinary scholarship and service are inspired by her years of experience as a social studies teacher in Cincinnati Public Schools, her relationships and work with both formerly and currently incarcerated people, and her lived experiences as someone directly impacted by mass incarceration.

Ph.D., Educational Leadership, Miami University, 2021

E325: Social Studies in the Elementary Classroom

• Black education
• The educational experiences of (formerly) incarcerated people
• Urban education
• School/prison abolition
• Social studies education

• McMillian, R., & Wilson, A. (2025). Living in the along: a portrait of educational possibilities in the dual pandemic. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Advance online publication.
• McMillian, R. D. (2025). The Good Cops, Bad Cops, Bullets, and Wounds: Toward Culturally Sustaining Prison Abolition Literacies in Early Childhood Education. Reading Research Quarterly, 60(1), 1-11. Article e586.
• McMillian, R., & BoClair, R. (2025). “The Poetry of the Future”: Black Anarchism, Abolition, and an Imagined Future for Critical Black Education. Critical Education, 16(2), 227-246.
• Adams, J. L., McMillian, R., & Love, B. (2024). Sweet Honey in the Rock: Finding Healing and Wellness as Black Women Educators in Carceral Spaces. Educational Studies - AESA, 60(4), 458-467.
• McMillian, R. (2024). Our Eyes are Watching God: Bearing Witness to Black Life and the Complexities of Black Joy on Death Row. Urban Education. Advance online publication. McMillian, R., Adams, J. L., & Johnson, T. (2024). When We See Us: A Kitchen Table Talk Exploring the Interior Lives of Black Women Educators Within Carceral Spaces. Educational Studies - AESA, 60(4), 353-368.
• Wilson, A., & McMillian, R. (2024). Black teachers in white spaces: Rupturing reproductions of Anti-Blackness in preservice social studies education. Theory and Research in Social Education, 52(4), 654-677.
• Wilson, A., & McMillian, R. (2024). kNOw Your History KNOw Yourself: Fugitive Praxes of Black Joy During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Urban Education. Advance online publication.
• McMillian, R. D., & Bryan, N. (2023). “Living within it all”: Black Critical Theory, Imprisoned Black Radical Tradition, and the art of BlackCrit Portraiture to center voices from sites of incarceration. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Advance online publication.
• Bryan, N., McMillian, R., & LaMar, K. (2022). Prison abolition literacies as Pro-Black pedagogy in early childhood education. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 22(3), 383-407.
• Bryan, N., Davis, D., McMillian, R. D., Jackson, J., & Cooper, R. (2022). Toward A Black PlayCrit in Educational Leadership: What School Leaders Need to Know About Black Boyhood Play. Journal of School Leadership, 1-22.
• McMillian, R. D., & Aronson, B. (2020). Critical Race Theory. In Encyclopedia of Critical Whiteness Studies in Education (pp. 119-132). Brill.

Professor says exonerees teach students how to 'survive and thrive'

'My Friend on Death Row Taught Me a Valuable Life Lesson'

A program designed to diversify Cincinnati's education workforce now looks to address the teacher shortage

Curriculum development with currently and formerly incarcerated community members

• Outstanding Faculty Award for Public Engagement, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education
• Public Engagement Fellowship, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education
• Public Voices Fellow, The OpEd Project
• Outstanding Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association, Division B
• Barbara L. Jackson Scholar, University Council for Educational Administration

• University of Illinois Call to Action to Address Racism & Social Injustice Research Program - “Project 9161: Speculating Black Futures from the Bottom of the Well” Funded, $75,000
• Mellon Foundation- “Communiversities as Education without Walls” Funded, $180,000
• Illinois State Board of Education Award- Award Amount: $600,000
• Spencer Small Research Grant- “Black to the Future: Fugitive Educational Possibilities in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic” Funded, $50,000

• American Educational Research Association (AERA)
• American Educational Studies Association (AESA)
• Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA)
• University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)
• National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
• Society of Professors of Education (SPE)