Mercy Agyepong

Mercy Agyepong (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Education program in the Department of Applied Statistics, Social Science and Humanities. Her scholarship draws from critical social theory, sociology of education, sociology of race and ethnicity, sociology of immigration, urban education, postcolonial theory, African diaspora studies, and anti-Blackness studies. Born in Accra, GH and raised in the Bronx, NY, she is particularly interested in the racialization and treatment of Black students in U.S. public schools, with a specific focus on the k-12 school experiences and academic achievement of sub-Saharan Africans. Her research has been funded by the American Educational Research Association's (AERA) Division G. She is the recipient of the 2021 NYU Steinhardt Racial Justice Award and the 2022 NYU Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Faculty Award. She has contributed to books such as Critical Theory and Qualitative Data Analysis in Education (Routledge Press), Erasing Invisibility, Inequity, and Social Injustice of Africans in the Diaspora and the Continent (Cambridge Scholars Publishing), and Reprocessing race, language and ability: African-born educators and students in transnational America (Peter Lang Publishers). 

Mercy Agyepong holds a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She also holds an M.S.Ed. in Education, Culture & Society from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Sociology of Education from New York University, and a B.A. in Sociology from SUNY-Geneseo.