Dr.Dwayne Wright

My research is situated at the intersection of systemic and institutional subordination in the United States, recognizing that many of the nation's systems and structures were established during periods when minoritized and marginalized groups were excluded from full societal participation. The inquiries I pursue challenge society to reassess the legitimacy of its institutions and reevaluate the “taken for granted” assumptions upon which these institutions are founded. Consequently, my research agenda employs diverse approaches from various academic disciplines to analyze how societal institutions marginalize individuals and how these institutions maintain and (re)produce such structures.

A distinctive aspect of my scholarship is that it often does not resemble, read as, or (perhaps most intentionally) "feel" like conventional legal or empirical scholarship. My research program is inquiry-based rather than subject or discipline-based, reflecting my commitment to interdisciplinary methods of knowledge production and detailed investigations of specific social phenomena from various epistemological perspectives.

Therefore, my scholarship spans disciplines such as law, higher education, gender/sexuality studies, ethnic studies, and others. These projects utilize legal case analysis, analytic philosophy, qualitative interviews, discourse analysis, ethnographic observations, and/or narrative inquiry. The method is determined less by the school I am currently affiliated with and more by the requirements of the investigation I am undertaking. This explains why I have pursued postsecondary scholarly training in a College of Education, a Law School, and, most recently, a Business School.

The investigations I conduct explore the nuances, complexities, and atmospheres of identity formation and development, with an emphasis on understanding the lived experiences of both the oppressed and the privileged. By scrutinizing law alongside American popular culture and progressive social movements, I examine how the institutional and systemic (re)production of societal inequity further entrenches other marginalities, particularly concerning race, class, sexuality, gender, and nationality. By analyzing the American educational system alongside law and public policy, I consider how educational stakeholders perceive the ongoing perpetuation of subordination in an ostensibly “colorblind” and “identity neutral” era in America.

Overall, my research aims to demonstrate that many of society's “equity-enhancing” institutions (e.g., immigration, higher education, parole in the criminal justice system, nonprofit corporations, etc.) actually function to preserve, rather than eliminate, endemic identity-based societal inequities. I seek to better understand how power structures operate, how they often masquerade as “neutral” institutions, and how policymakers might counteract the injustices these power structures may have introduced.