Bio/Education

Dr. Eric Kyere is an Assistant Professor of Social Work and Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies at the Indiana University, IUPUI.  Dr. Kyere’s research seeks to examine and identify how racism revives itself with enduring impact on the persons of African descent both on the continental Africa and the diasporic world, ways to disrupt it, and reimagine a decolonized/anti-racist society. More specifically, Dr. Kyere focuses on the evolution of anti-black racism through enslavement, colonialism, and coloniality to construct collective cultural memory, trauma, and liberatory and thriving practices of the persons of African descent within an Atlantic framework. He applies research tools and skills from transdisciplinary perspective especially social science and humanities to engage communities of African descent especially youth and young adults across the Atlantic to map their proximity to both historical and continued effects of the evolution of anti-black racism, identify the various life thriving resistance strategies that Blacks have deployed, and synthesize these to synergistically construct decolonial/anti-racist narratives from the Atlantic framework. Dr. Kyere’s overall goal is to broadly assemble narratives that capture the experiences of Black and other marginalized people within the matrix of global colonial racial empire and build on them to inform anti-racist and decolonial research and education, and subsequently anti-racist and decolonized society.

He has expertise in a variety of areas including: students’ engagement, racial inequities in education and health, racial-ethnic socialization, racial identity with particular focus on persons of African descent’s developmental outcomes, parenting, equitable school climate, program evaluation, international social work, and human trafficking.  Dr. Kyere earned his BA in social work in 2006 from the University of Ghana, MSW in 2011 from the Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh in 2017. In addition, Dr. Kyere acquired a graduate certificate in African Studies from the University of Pittsburgh Center for International Studies.

Area of Interest

Disparities in education 

African American Students Engagement and Achievement

Parenting 

Equitable School Climate

Positive Youth Development

Program Evaluation 

Human Trafficking

International Social Work

Teaching Interest

Human Behavior and the Social Environment

Generalist Social Work practice with individuals, children and families, and communities

Children, Youth and families Policy

Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Diversity in Social Work

School Social Work

Global Social Work Practice

Practice Experience

Publications / Presentations

1. Kyere, E., Fukui, S., Rudd, S. (2020). The role of racial-ethnic identity in

understanding depression symptoms in the context of racial discrimination among African American youth. Journal of Society for Social Work & Research. https://doi.org/10.1086/711700

2. Graham, J., Kyere, E., Jackson, T. (accepted). The trauma-sensitive urban educator model: An

interdisciplinary framework for preservice urban educators. In Garo, A., L., Butler, R. B., & Lewis, W. C., The urban educators’ trauma toolkit: Transformative school-based strategies for students exposed to violence

3. Kyere, E., Karikari, I. & Teegen, C. B. (2020) The Associations among teacher discrimination,

parents and peer emotional support and African American youth school bonding. Families in Society, 1044389419892277

4. Flores, O. J., & Kyere, E. (2020). Advancing Equity-Based School Leadership: The Importance

of Family–School Relationships. The Urban Review, 1-18.

5. Kyere, E., & Khandare, L. (2020). The Role of Social Work Education in Fostering Empowerment of People of African Descent: The Significance of the History of Slavery and Colonialism. InSocial Work Education. IntechOpen.

6. Boddie, S. C., Kyere, E., & Adedoyin, A. C. (2019). A meta-theoretical framework for

understanding educational disparities affecting Black youth in the United States: Implications for social work. Urban Social Work, 3(2), 187-206.

7. Kyere, E. & Huguley, J. (2018). Exploring the process by which positive racial identity

develops and influences academic performance in Black youth. Implications for social work. Journal of Cultural and Ethnic Diversity in Social Work, 1-19

8. Kyere, E. Joseph, A. & Wei, K. (2018). An alternative to zero tolerance and out-of-school

suspensions: A multiered perspective. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 1-16.

9. Huguley, J., Kyere, E. & Wang, M. (2018). Educational expectations in African American

families: Assessing the importance of immediate performance requirements. Race and Social Problems, 10(2), 158-169.

10. Taylor, J., Kyere, E. & King, E. (2018). A gardening metaphor: A framework for closing racial

achievement gaps in America. Journal of Urban Education 0042085918770721

11. Moore, S. E., Robinson, M. A., Clayton, D. M., Boamah, D. A., Adedoyin, C. A., Kyere, E., &

Harmon, D. K. (2018). A critical race theoretical perspective of police shooting of unarmed Black Males in the USA: Implications for social work. Urban Social Work, 2(1), 33-47.

12. Conahan, J. & Kyere, E. (2015). Community readiness: Responding to the needs of human

trafficking victims. International Journal of interdisciplinary Social and Community Studies, 10(3), 1-17.

13. Conahan, J. & Kyere, E. (2010). Human trafficking: A social welfare club’s campaign against

social injustice. International journal of interdisciplinary social sciences, 5(7), 125-136.

14. Kyere, E. (2016). Book Review: “Making the unequal metropolis: school desegregation and its

limits.” Journal of Children and Poverty, 152-153.