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News Release

WSU Vancouver DocArts Series To Feature Education Professor Shameem Rakha And Her Work With A Student Radio Project On School Desegregation - 10/16/26

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Washington State University Vancouver’s DocArts series will feature WSU assistant professor Shameem Rakha from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19 in the Dengerink Administration Building, Room 110. Rakha will discuss her work with African American middle and high school students in Champaign, Illinois, who produced radio documentaries exploring racial segregation and the history of their community.

 

The event is free and open to the public. Participants also may attend via Zoom at bit.ly/4xKkv7L (passcode: DocArts26).

 

Rakha served as lead educator for the Youth Media Workshop, a collaboration among Illinois Public Media, Innovative Education Consulting and the Champaign Public School District, from 2004 to 2006. During the 2004/05 school year, 15 African American girls from Franklin Middle School and Central High School investigated local redlining practices and school desegregation through archival research and interviews with community members who experienced those events firsthand.

 

Working alongside journalists and audio production specialists, including University of Illinois professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leon Dash, students learned interviewing techniques, recording technology and documentary storytelling. Their work culminated in the hourlong radio documentary “More Than a Bus Ride,” which examined the desegregation of Champaign schools.

 

Beyond developing journalism skills, participants gained confidence, strengthened connections with community elders and became more engaged in their education.

 

Before entering higher education, Rakha taught elementary and middle school students for 17 years. She earned a doctorate in educational policy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013. Her teaching experience continues to inform her research on culturally relevant pedagogy, educational equity and strategies to improve academic outcomes for students of color.

 

Rakha is an assistant professor in WSU Vancouver’s College of Education, Sport and Human Sciences. She teaches Elementary Social Studies Methods, Multicultural Education, Social Foundations of Education, and Race and Racial Identity in Education across undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs. Her recent research examines how educators can foster caring relationships with students, particularly when teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds.

 

The presentation is part of the DocArts series, an initiative rooted in decades of justice-centered multimedia production by WSU faculty. Developed in response to media consolidation, censorship and reductions in public media funding, the series combines multicultural knowledge, multimedia storytelling and the arts to examine social and environmental issues while highlighting community resilience.

 

DocArts is sponsored by the Collective for Social and Environmental Justice and Native American Programs at WSU Vancouver and KBOO Radio. Events are free and open to the public and are recorded for broadcast on KXRW, KBOO and Open Signal Cable Television.

 

About WSU Vancouver

WSU Vancouver is one of six campuses of Washington State University and the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington. The campus offers undergraduate and graduate programs that support workforce development, innovation and economic growth through strong partnerships with businesses, industries and community organizations.

 

WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave. in Vancouver and is accessible via I-5, I-205 and C-TRAN bus service.

 

WSU Vancouver is located on the homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Peoples of the Lower Columbia Valley. We acknowledge their presence here. WSU Vancouver expresses its respect towards these original and current caretakers of the region. We pledge that these relationships will be built on mutual trust and respect.

WSU Vancouver DocArts Series To Feature Education Professor Shameem Rakha And Her Work With A Student Radio Project On School Desegregation - 10/16/26

VANCOUVER, Wash. – Washington State University Vancouver’s DocArts series will feature WSU assistant professor Shameem Rakha from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19 in the Dengerink Administration Building, Room 110. Rakha will discuss her work with African American middle and high school students in Champaign, Illinois, who produced radio documentaries exploring racial segregation and the history of their community.

 

The event is free and open to the public. Participants also may attend via Zoom at bit.ly/4xKkv7L (passcode: DocArts26).

 

Rakha served as lead educator for the Youth Media Workshop, a collaboration among Illinois Public Media, Innovative Education Consulting and the Champaign Public School District, from 2004 to 2006. During the 2004/05 school year, 15 African American girls from Franklin Middle School and Central High School investigated local redlining practices and school desegregation through archival research and interviews with community members who experienced those events firsthand.

 

Working alongside journalists and audio production specialists, including University of Illinois professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leon Dash, students learned interviewing techniques, recording technology and documentary storytelling. Their work culminated in the hourlong radio documentary “More Than a Bus Ride,” which examined the desegregation of Champaign schools.

 

Beyond developing journalism skills, participants gained confidence, strengthened connections with community elders and became more engaged in their education.

 

Before entering higher education, Rakha taught elementary and middle school students for 17 years. She earned a doctorate in educational policy from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013. Her teaching experience continues to inform her research on culturally relevant pedagogy, educational equity and strategies to improve academic outcomes for students of color.

 

Rakha is an assistant professor in WSU Vancouver’s College of Education, Sport and Human Sciences. She teaches Elementary Social Studies Methods, Multicultural Education, Social Foundations of Education, and Race and Racial Identity in Education across undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs. Her recent research examines how educators can foster caring relationships with students, particularly when teachers and students come from different cultural backgrounds.

 

The presentation is part of the DocArts series, an initiative rooted in decades of justice-centered multimedia production by WSU faculty. Developed in response to media consolidation, censorship and reductions in public media funding, the series combines multicultural knowledge, multimedia storytelling and the arts to examine social and environmental issues while highlighting community resilience.

 

DocArts is sponsored by the Collective for Social and Environmental Justice and Native American Programs at WSU Vancouver and KBOO Radio. Events are free and open to the public and are recorded for broadcast on KXRW, KBOO and Open Signal Cable Television.

 

About WSU Vancouver

WSU Vancouver is one of six campuses of Washington State University and the only four-year research university in Southwest Washington. The campus offers undergraduate and graduate programs that support workforce development, innovation and economic growth through strong partnerships with businesses, industries and community organizations.

 

WSU Vancouver is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave. in Vancouver and is accessible via I-5, I-205 and C-TRAN bus service.

 

WSU Vancouver is located on the homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Peoples of the Lower Columbia Valley. We acknowledge their presence here. WSU Vancouver expresses its respect towards these original and current caretakers of the region. We pledge that these relationships will be built on mutual trust and respect.