Dr. Leslie K. Etienne is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Africana Studies and Culture,
Assistant Professor of Africana Studies, and Director of the Africana Studies program at Indiana
University-Purdue University, Indianapolis (IUPUI). His research interests are frameworks for Black
emancipatory education, health equity and food justice, educational justice, Black internationalism,
Black cultural production and arts administration, museum education, cultural heritage preservation,
historical and contemporary manifestations of Black radical and intellectual traditions. He is particularly
versed in the narrative history of the 1964 SNCC Freedom Schools that operated in Mississippi during the
Freedom Summer. He currently serves as the Executive Director of the IUPUI/Children’s Defense Fund
Freedom School, and in 2018 co-curated Remember 1968, an exhibit that highlights a timeline of the
year 1968, focusing on six overlapping areas that parallel present day issues on college campuses: Gun
Violence, Freedom of Speech, Student Activism, Global/Local Resistance, Patriotism, and Organizing.