Michelle Fine

Michelle Fine is a Distinguished Professor of Critical Psychology, Women’s Studies, Social Welfare, American Studies and Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY and founding faculty member of The Public Science Project, a university-community research space designed in collaboration with movements for racial and educational justice. She has been recognized as Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa (UNISA) Psychology department, 2021 – 2024. As a scholar, expert witness in litigation, a teacher and an educational activist, her work centers theoretically and epistemically on questions of justice and dignity, privilege and oppression, and how solidarities emerge.

With a rich international network of collaborators and activist scholar colleagues, she has spent time teaching and researching at the Institute for Maori Studies in Auckland, New Zealand; the Centre for Narrative Research at the University of East London; University of Witswatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; Universidad Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil; and at the Euroclio Institute in Nicosia Cypress.

Across thirty years, her key publications include many classics: books and articles on high school push outs, adolescent sexuality (called the “missing discourse of desire”) the national evaluation of the impact of college in prison, the struggles and strength of the children of incarcerated adults, the wisdom of Muslim American youth, as well as chapters and books on epistemic justice and critical participatory inquiry.

Michelle Fine noted, "My biggest contribution is in the students who have worked for me who are now people in universities and transforming how we think about methods. My biggest contribution is helping to kind of grow and nurture a generation, a diverse generation of young scholars who dared to integrate theory, research, policy and action. Bringing rigorous data to questions that we would choose to socially silence."