I am associate professor of philosophy and history of education and teach courses on how education has, does, and can help us imagine, struggle for, and enact liberatory ways of being together in the world. My courses depend on and inform my research interests, which are quite varied but generally focus on the relationships between education and political movements. If you like podcasts, I think the brilliant hosts of Nothing Never Happens helped me articulate the larger picture of my work in this interview.

I've written a few books, the latest of which is Teaching the Actuality of Revolution: Aesthetics, Pedagogy, and the Sensations of Struggle (and you can hear about on Revolutionary Left Radio). I serve as deputy editor of the Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies, associate editor of Postdigital Science and Education, and contributing editor at the Hampton Institute. I’ve published 50 peer-reviewed articles in journals ranging from Contemporary Music Review and Educational Philosophy and Theory to Rethinking Marxism, and International Critical Thought. My public scholarship appears in outlets like Black Agenda Report, Monthly Review, Peace, Land, and Bread, and has been translated into Türkçe, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Chinese, and Japanese. I hosted and co-created the podcast series, Reading Capital with Comrades, which takes listeners through volume 1 of Marx's magnum opus and is available on all major streaming platforms, and helped write and produce the mini-documentary, "26 Years Too Long: Vernon T. Bateman's Fight for Freedom."

What moves my research and teaching also moves my organizing. I am on the Steering Committee of the Free Shaka Shakur Campaign, volunteer as the Organizational Relations Director at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, and as an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, among other groups. I was recently a Visiting Scholar at Korea University (Tokyo).

Media Publications: 

Breaking Through U.S. Propaganda on North Korea. CovertAction Bulletin (podcast), available here: https://covertactionmagazine.com/2023/07/19/covertaction-bulletin-breaking-through-u-s-propaganda-on-north-korea

Ri, Y. (2025). The Korean movement in Japan connects with the world. Choson Sinbo, January 27, available here: https://chosonsinbo.com/jp/2025/01/27-221/

Jung Da-min, Nuclear confrontation with US is ending, Korea Times, available here: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2019/02/103_263326.html

K.L. Chang, More than 100 protest library board's CEO choice, demand Hayes become new leader. IndyStar, available here: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/local/indianapolis/2022/12/13/indianapolis-public-library-protestors-demand-nichelle-hayes-for-ceo/69721922007/

Teaching the actuality of revolution: Unlearning, aesthetics, and the sensations of struggle. Revolutionary Left Radio (podcast), available here: https://revolutionaryleftradio.libsyn.com/derek-ford

Books: 

Teaching the actuality of revolution: Aesthetics, unlearning, and the sensations of struggle. Madison: Iskra Books, 2023.

Communist study: Education for the commons, 2nd ed. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2022

Inhuman educations: Jean-François Lyotard, pedagogy, thought. Boston: Brill, 2021

Politics and pedagogy in the “post-truth” era: Insurgent philosophy and praxis. London: Bloomsbury, 2019.

Education and the production of space: Political pedagogy, geography, and urban revolution. New York and London: Routledge, 2017.