Even though Dr. James Earl Davis grew up in the rural South, near Huntsville, Alabama, he has always loved cities.
Now, Davis — a prolific researcher and teacher — uses urban spaces as a platform for his scholarship at Temple University, where he holds the Bernard C. Watson Endowed Chair in Urban Education and is a professor of higher education and educational leadership.
“Always fascinated with ideas,” Davis says, adding that his childhood growing up in the South provided a nurturing environment for him to fall in love with learning. He eventually attended Morehouse College and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology. While there, Davis found a number of mentors who offered their support and helped to mold his career trajectory.
“I had such caring and engaged faculty and advisors,” says Davis. “It was clear the faculty actually knew my potential and had ambitions for me before I was well aware of those.”
Davis is convinced that his experience at Morehouse “ensconced” his current career pathway as he knew that he wanted to pursue a research agenda. After graduation from Morehouse, he went straight to Cornell University for graduate school, where he situated his studies on social policy and evaluation research.
Following a post-doctoral fellowship in educational policy, Davis became an assistant professor of measurements, statistics and evaluation at the University of Delaware where he remained for almost a decade. He later relocated to Temple University where he began an associate professorship.
“Temple University is in North Philadelphia so the context is really attractive to me,” says Davis. “The city, the urban landscape kind of drew me and then continues to influence my work.”
