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Introduction

My name is Tyler (Ty) Denmead. I serve as a Professor of Education (as of October 2026) at the University of Cambridge. I also serve as the Dean of College, Official Fellow, and Director of Studies in Education at Queens’ College. I was the founder of New Urban Arts in Providence, USA. This nationally-recognised arts and youth development organisation has had a major influence on my teaching and scholarship. I am the Executive Editor of the Cambridge Journal of Education and I serve as the co-Chair of the Art Education Research Institute. I formerly served as the first Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion Lead Fellow at Queens’ College.

Scholarship

My scholarship examines the cultural politics of race in education.

I am the author of two books:

Rethinking Critical Race Theory: Education Against Elimination in a Time of Genocide (w/ Amina Shareef; Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) (open access);
The Creative Underclass: Youth, Race and the Gentrifying City (Duke, 2019) (open access).

My current book project is tentatively titled:

The White Rage Curriculum: The Reactionary Politics Against Humanities Education “After Man” at Stanford in the Reagan Eighties.

I am also the author of the journal articles and book chapters listed here.

Teaching

I pride myself as a teacher who builds meaningful and transformative learning communities with students. My core values centre on mutual respect, collaboration, and the pursuit of knowledge that challenges social inequities. I have won several teaching awards, including: ‘the best doctoral supervisor‘ in the UK (2023); the University of Cambridge’s ‘best lecturer’ (2019); and, the Cambridge Faculty of Education’s Teaching Award (2024). The University of Cambridge Student Union recognised me with a ‘Student Partnership and Empowerment Award’ (2023). I lead the Queens’ College Education Society and oversee the Joan Whitehead Subject Fund for Education students at Queens’ College.

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge (Queens’). 2012

Master of Philosophy, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge (Queens’). 2008 (distinction)

Bachelor of Arts, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University (USA). 1998

Honours

Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow (2021)

United States Congressional Proclamation (29 April 2007)

Echoing Green Fellowship (1998)

Royce Fellowship, Brown University (1997)

Doctoral Education

I welcome doctoral students whose scholarship focuses on ‘race’ and racism in education from a critical and interdisciplinary perspective. I also welcome applications from students who are working on critical debates in arts and humanities education. My prior students have employed a wide range of critical perspectives on their projects: cultural studies, decolonial and postcolonial thought, Critical Muslim Studies, Black studies, women of colour feminist thought, Black feminist thought, and Critical Race Theory. Their scholarship has been based in various national contexts, including US, Palestine, India, China, US, and Britain. I provide a robust doctoral education for students, including: individual supervision, fortnightly seminars, thematic symposia, and writing weeks. I frequently publish with my doctoral students.