LAUSR

This article presents Joyce E. King’s 2015 AERA presidential address, which artfully combined scholarly discourse with performance elements and diverse voices in several multimedia formats. In discussing morally engaged research/ers dismantling epistemological nihilation, the article advances the argument that the moral stance, solidarity with racial/cultural dignity in education praxis, policy, and research, is needed to combat discursive forms of racism. The lecture opened with African Americans and Native Americans performing culturally affirming traditional ritual practices. An African drum processional and a libation honored revered Black ancestors—scholars, artists, and activist intellectuals—Maya Angelou, Ruby Dee, Amiri Baraka, Vincent Harding, and Asa G. Hilliard, III (Nana Baffour Amankwatia II). An intergenerational Native American delegation offered a traditional welcome prayer, gifting of tobacco, and ceremonial drumming and dance performance. Dr. King began her address by acknowledging that the 2015 AERA annual meeting was taking place in the ancestral lands of the Pottawatomie Nation.