Dr. Becknell is an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of Africana Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His transdisciplinary work brings Africana Studies, educational policy, and Black theological traditions into conversation to examine Black life in New Mexico’s U.S.–Mexico borderlands and the broader African diaspora. Centering New Mexico as a critical site within the contiguous United States, he attends to memory, ritual, and collective care as forms of living knowledge. His scholarship and teaching explore how curriculum and pedagogy shape what counts as knowledge and how schools engage race, power, and difference in everyday educational life.
Becknell, C.E., Ulibarri, J., Matute-Chavarria, M., & Bellamy, E.H. (2026). Transforming education in New Mexico: The Black Education Act as an equity and cultural empowerment model. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 24(1), 174–191. View publication
Becknell, C.E., *Green, T., & *Boyer, C. (2025). Mapping Black histories: Blackdom, maroon pedagogy, and the re-rooting of ethnic studies in the borderlands. Ethnic Studies Pedagogies, 3(2), 76–89. View publication
Becknell, C.E. (2025). Sweat the technique: Revelations on navigating hostile terrains of Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). Black Educology Mixtape “Journal”, 3(1). View publication
