Rae Stevenson is an Assistant Professor in the Community, Youth, and Education Studies major at Clark University. A writer, scholar, and youth worker, her work focuses on creating spaces where young people can engage in storytelling, art, and participatory action research to challenge systemic inequities and imagine radical futures. She specializes in community-engaged and participatory research methods, arts-based approaches, and qualitative inquiry, with a particular focus on youth empowerment in education.
She holds a Ph.D. in Social Work from Tulane University’s interdisciplinary City, Culture, and Community program. She has co-led multiple youth-driven research initiatives, including the 2021 New Orleans YPAR Academy and collaborations with the Center for Youth Equity at Tulane University.
Her dissertation centered on a youth-led, arts-based research project that resulted in a graphic novel anthology exploring the racialized experiences of Black youth in the New Orleans school system. Her published works include The Light through the Woods, a children’s picture book about grief, as well as contributions to indie comics anthologies.