Dr. Christina Wright Fields

Associate Professor of Education

Bio

Christina Wright Fields, PhD, examines what it means to make schools and colleges more just — for the students who sit in them and the educators and administrators who lead them. An educator, scholar, and advocate for educational equity, she studies how race, leadership, culture, and justice intersect in K-12 and higher education, drawing on critical qualitative and participatory research methods that put the lived experiences of systemically marginalized educators and students at the center of the story.

Her scholarship spans culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy, teacher preparation, educational leadership, global competence, and the experiences of Black women in educational spaces. She describes her work as connecting the power of storytelling and counternarrative with theoretical foundations — scholarship that centers Black lived experience and social justice in education. She is co-editor of Borderless Education: A Pedagogical Framework for Cultural Responsiveness and Global Competence (Bloomsbury, 2026), which advances new approaches to culturally responsive teaching in an interconnected world, and her writing appears in journals including Urban Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, and Public Integrity. At Marist, she teaches and mentors future educators, helping them develop the skills, cultural competence, and critical awareness needed to serve diverse learners and communities.
Dr. Fields brings that same commitment into professional leadership. She serves in roles with the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), the New York Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (NYACTE), and the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP), is a Longview Foundation Global Teacher Education Fellow, and is the recipient of Marist University's 2026 Award for Exceptional Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activity.

Of Jamaican heritage and a devoted Philadelphia sports fan, Dr. Fields brings the same sense of community, persistence, and loyalty into her work with future educators. She believes meaningful change begins one classroom, one student, and one relationship at a time.
 

Education

PhD, Higher Education Administration Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH

Dissertation: A Case Study of Urban African-centered Charter School Personnel Development and Support of a College-Preparatory Ethos. 

MS, Higher Education Administration with Enrollment Management, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA

Thesis: Assessment of Institutional Diversity and Development of Ethnic Studies Program at Buena Vista University.

BS, Biology with African American Studies and Chemistry minors, Millersville University, Millersville, PA

Research Interests / Areas of Focus

I approach my scholarship and creative activities through an intersectional and analytical lens that connects the power of storytelling and counternarratives with theoretical foundations. My scholarship and creative activities center Black lived experiences, equity and ethics in administration, and social justice in education. 

Selected Publications

Wright Fields, C., McIntosh, N., & Nenenone, R. (2026). Borderless education: A pedagogical framework for cultural responsiveness and global competence. Global Teacher Education series. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Mawhinney, L., Rinke, C. R., Wright Fields, C., Porterfield, L.K., Bartley-Carter, D., & Auffant, N. (2025). Truth Tellers: Using Photovoice Method to Inform Recruitment and Retention with Teachers of Color. Urban Education, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00420859251353780 

Wright Fields, C. & Hübner, J. (2025). Borderless technology enhanced learning: The affordances of COIL in ELT educator preparation programs. Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning, 4(2). https://doi.org/10.21428/8c225f6e.2c972374 

Rinke, C., Mawhinney, L., Porterfield, L.K., Wright Fields, C., Bartley-Carter, D., & Auffant, N.J. (2025). Counterstories of Teachers of Color: Photovoice narratives from educators who “Walked in their shoes.” Teaching and Teacher Education, 159, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2025.105012  

Conyers, A. & Wright Fields, C. (2025). Paralyzing DEI: A Critical analysis of Anti-CRT Legislation. Administration Theory & Praxis. 1-19 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10841806.2025.2449783

Wright Fields, C., Howell, G., & Jones, S.M. (2024). Truth be Told: Utilizing Music to (Re)define the Narrative of Black Women Educators’ Lived Experiences. Black Educology Mixtape Journal. 2(1). Retrieved from https://repository.usfca.edu/be/vol2/iss1/10

Wright Fields, C. & Overby, K. (2022). #BlackInTheIvory: Utilizing Twitter to explore Black female experiences in the academy. In C.J. Porter, V.T. Sulé and N.N. Croom (Eds.) Black Feminist Epistemology, Research, and Praxis: Narratives in and through the Academy (pp. 107-114). Routledge. 

Wright Fields, C. & Conyers, A. (2022). An Argument for administrative critical consciousness in public administration. Public Integrity, 24(2), 414-421. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2022.2034340 

Wright Fields, C., & Power-Carter, S. (2021). Writing While Black: The Power of Words and Student's Self-Empowerment. Journal of African American Women and Girls in Education, 1(1), 24-38. https://doi.org/10.21423/jaawge-v1i1a28 

Conyers, A. & Wright Fields, C. (2020). A Critical race theory analysis of institutional racial paralysis in organizational culture. Public Integrity, 23(5), 484-495. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2020.1832365 

Wright Fields, C. (2020). In the spirit of Ubuntu: Educating and leading through an African-centered paradigm. Journal of Education Human Resources, 38(2): 173-193. https://doi.org/10.3138/jehr-2019-0013 

Selected Presentations

Hauweras, L.B., Wright Fields, C., & Ausili, C. (2024, December). Raising critical questions in intercultural literacy and teacher education: A Participatory action project about accessibility and diversity in children’s books in Italy. [Paper]. Literacy Research Association (LRA). Atlanta, GA.

Wright Fields, C., Bartley Carter, D., Porterfield, L.K., Rinke, C., & Mawhinney, L. (2024, November). Breaking the Mold: Teacher Activism and Photovoice in Amplifying the Voices of Teachers of Color. [Paper]. International Conference on Urban Education (ICUE). Cancun, Mexico.

*Mawhinney, L., Rinke, C., P Wright Fields, C. Porterfield, L.K, & Bartley-Carter, D., & (2024, June). Imagining where we’re going as we fly: Unshackling methodological chains through photovoice. In L.K. Porterfield (Chair), Seeking new suns: Murmurations on the visual, affective, geographic, and sonic possibilities of collaborative liberatory methodologies [Symposium]. International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA), Xalapa, Mexico. 

Mawhinney, L., Rinke, C., Porterfield, L. & Wright Fields, C. (2023, June). The Storied experiences of Teachers of Color through Photovoice. Session presented at International Visual Studies Association. International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA). Nairobi, Kenya.

Allison, K., Wright Fields, C., & Early, S. (2018, April). Get Me Bodied: Using Embodied Pedagogy in Social Justice Education. Student Affairs Administrator in Higher Education (NASPA) Conference. Philadelphia, PA.

Wright Fields, C., Vasquez, B., & Martinez, S. (2017, May). Nuestra Identidad Y Experiencias (Our Identity and Experiences): Understanding Latino cultural identity in high school students and its influences on college-going. Program at National Council for Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) Conference. Fort Worth, TX.

Howell, G., Campbell, T., Overby, K., and Wright Fields, C. (2017, March). Creating and Sustaining our Village: Fictive Kinship and Black Female Doctoral Students.  Program at American College Personnel Association (ACPA) Conference. Columbus, OH.

Awards and Honors

Marist University Award for Exceptional Research, Scholarship, or Creative Activity, 2026

Fellow, Institute for Teachers of Color (2023—2024)

Fellow, Longview Foundation Global Teacher Education (2022—2023)

NASPA Region II Distinguished Excellence in Diversity Award, 2018, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA)

NASPA Excellence Award Grand Bronze Honoree, 2017, International, Multicultural, Cultural, Gender, LGBTQ, Spirituality, Disability, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA)

Support Latino/a Student Success Award, 2015, American College Personnel Association (ACPA) 

African American Knowledge Community KUUMBA New Professionals Award, 2014, Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA)

Image of Doctor Christina Wright Fields.

Contact Information

Academic School

School of Social and Behavioral Sciences

Office

Dyson 3054

Email

christina.fields@Marist.edu

Phone

(845) 575-3000 ext. 2619