Nino Rodriguez
Postdoctoral Research Associate
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About
Nino Rodriguez is guided by his mission to promote healing among black males via the curation of spaces, development of programming, and creation of policies that equip us with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to liberate ourselves.
His work with Young Males of Color led him to acquire his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in the Social and Cultural Studies of Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) During his time at UIUC, he developed as an interdisciplinary scholar guided by the deconstruction of black manhood to liberate black males from western European ideals that promote dysfunctional ideologies, roles, and norms.
Inspired by black feminist thought, Nino uses his academic training, coupled with his lived experiences, to support black males expansion of their internal capacity via participation in external spaces that allow us to: (a) resist the maladaptive roles and norms ascribed to black males in America; (b) recover from the systemic trauma inflicted upon our minds and bodies; as well as (c) identify and construct black manhoods that position us to heal rather than harm ourselves, our families, and our communities.
Currently, Nino’s scholarship and praxis focuses amplifying the voices of adolescent (13 - 18) and emerging adult (18 – 25) black males to ensure that their views and experiences will no longer be ignored during the development of “well-intentioned” programs, policies, and practices created to “serve them” at the community, state, and national levels.
When he isn’t engaged in the Defense Against the Dark Arts, Nino enjoys exploring self-care practices as well as listening to Hip Hop’s philosophers (e.g. Sean Michael Leonard Anderson, Jermaine Lamarr Cole, Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, and Cordae Amari Dunston to name a few.)