David C. Turner III

David C. Turner III is an activist scholar from Inglewood, California. He earned his Ph.D. in the Social and Cultural Studies in Education program at UC Berkeley, where his research focuses on youth-based social movements, political identity, and resistance to the prison regime.  He has published numerous articles and book chapters, including manuscripts in the American Educational Research Journal, Theory Into Practice, Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics, and the Berkeley Review of Education. As a seasoned community organizer and educator, Dr. Turner brings over a decade of experience to the classroom and community organizing, having worked to negotiate and win demands for racial justice, secure funding, divest resources from punitive and harmful institutions, and coordinate direct actions across the state of California and the nation, all while teaching at both the K-12 and the postsecondary level.
 
Dr. Turner worked in LA County with Boys and Men of Color as the Brothers, Sons, Selves Coalition manager, where he co-led campaigns to change school discipline practices, support investments in youth development, and end policies and practices that lead to criminalization in communities of color. David has taught hip hop, research methods, political science, Africana studies, comparative Ethnic studies, and education courses. Dr. Turner has participated in the movement for Black lives as a political education and research specialist, helping organizations with teach-ins, designing curricula, and community-based participatory action research surveys. For his activism and applied scholarship, Dr. Turner has been featured in the Chronicle of Higher Education, NBC BLK, the Los Angeles Times, Spectrum 1 News, and the New York Times. David is currently a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies at UCLA. Starting in Fall 2022, Dr. Turner will join the Department of Social Welfare in the Luskin School of Public Affairs at UCLA as an Assistant Professor of Black Life and Racial Justice.