Alexia Oduro

Bio

Alexia Oduro is a PhD student and Provost Fellow at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. Her research examines institutional responses to campus racism, with particular attention to anti-Black racism and the legal and policy contexts that shape institutional action. Her work explores how colleges and universities understand and enact their responsibilities when racial harm occurs, with particular attention to the legal and policy conditions that constrain and enable institutional action.Drawing on qualitative, participatory, and critical research approaches, Oduro’s scholarship is grounded in the belief that research should not only document racial harm but also identify possibilities for institutional change. Her research has been published in journals including The Journal of Higher Education, Race Ethnicity and Education, Families in Society, and The Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community. She has also contributed to policy briefs, book chapters, conference presentations, and public-facing scholarship addressing campus responses to racial incidents and the broader political landscape of higher education.

Oduro’s work is informed by sustained engagement in institutional and community-based efforts addressing anti-Black racism. She is a research assistant with the Critical Policy Collective, the Pullias Center for Higher Education, and the Race and Equity Center at USC. She is also a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter All the Time Collective, a research collaborative committed to producing knowledge that informs policy, practice, and institutional action. Across her scholarship, Oduro seeks to advance understandings of institutional responsibility and produce research that expands the possibilities for more effective and equitable responses to racism in higher education.

Advisor: Royel M. Johnson
Related Centers: USC Race and Equity Center, Pullias Center for Higher Education

Publications

• Johnson, R. M., Martin, M. M., Oduro, A., Haynes, M. (2025). How whiteness works: Evasion, protection, and conditionality in white staff narratives on race and DEI in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2026.2679419
• Johnson, R. M., Oduro, A., & Martin, M. M. (2025). “Nothing Will Change”: Black staff counternarratives on anti-Black racism and DEI in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2025.2572943
• Oduro, A., Sonsteng-Person, M., Montgomery, D. M., King-Shaw, S., King-Shaw, N., & Santos, A. (2024). Addressing Anti-Black Racism in Social Work Education: A Policy Brief to Ensure Black Students Thrive in Social Work. Families in Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10443894241260071
• King-Shaw, S., King-Shaw, N., Sonsteng-Person, M., Mikell, D., Oduro, A. (2024). “The things we carry:” Interventions against the cumulative effects of racism in  K-12 education. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community. https://doi.org/10.1080/10852352.2024.2323885
• Sonsteng-Person, M., King-Shaw, S., King-Shaw, N., Oduro, A., Mikell, D., Barton, K., & Cruz, B. (2024). “We are not ok:” A Photovoice Study on Educational Violence and Resistance by and for Black Undergraduate Students at Predominantly White Institutions. Race, Ethnicity, and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2024.2327023
• Oduro, A. (2022, October 20). IMPACT: A framework to guide campus responses to racial incidents. Diverse Issues in Higher Education. https://www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/contact/15293041/alexia-oduro
• Oduro, A. (2022, April 10). SDSU students should not have to hear offensive racial slurs from their teachers. The San Diego Union-Tribune. https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commentary/story/2022-04-10/sdsu-racial-slur-academic-freedom