Millburn-Short Hills Magazine Back to School 2020 | Page 14
social justice
Teaching
the Teachers
Dr. Khyati Joshi trains educators to promote socialjustice
WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICHHANDLER
Dr. Khyati Joshi became
interested in the systemic
nature ofbias
the hard way: She was
avictim of it herself.
Anaturalized citizen
who emigrated with her family to the
U.S. from Gujarat, India, when she
was 18 months old, she says that, as
a“brown girl,” she didn’t fitinto her
Atlanta community. “Folks didn’t
know what to do with me,” she says.
In middle school, she was bullied so
relentlessly that her academic work
suffered.
“A good day was when nobody
talked to me because then nobody
harassed me,” she says. “I’d leave
school and think that the only communication
Ihad was with teachers,
but at least Iwasn’t made fun of.
No wonder Imade all C’s.”
Though she grew up alongside
many Hindu community members,
it was reading Night by holocaust
survivor Elie Wiesel that changed
her life. “I was obsessed,” she says.
“It drove myhistory and English
teachers crazy.” Joshi majored in
religious studies atEmory University,
studied at the Hebrew University in
Jerusalem for ayear and returned
to America topursue her doctorate
in Social Justice Education atthe
University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Dr. Joshi was then avisiting
assistant professor at the Center
for the Study of Ethnicity and Race
at Columbia University, where she
taught Asian American Studies and
Comparative Ethnic Studies; she
DR.KHYATI
JOSHI
COURTESY OF CHARMI PEÑA
12 BACK TOSCHOOL 2020 MILLBURN &SHORT HILLS MAGAZINE