Eve L. Ewing is assistant professor at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. She is the author of Electric Arches, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, New Yorker, Atlantic, Washington Post, and many other venues. She was born in Chicago, where she still lives.
"Two questions permeate this study: 'If the schools were so
terrible, why did people fight for them so adamantly?' and 'What
role did race, power, and history play in what was happening in my
hometown?' . . . The deeply moving final chapter addresses the
Bronzeville community's sense of mourning in the loss of
'institutions, like our schools that have helped shape our sense of
who we are.' Ewing's work, a tribute to students, parents,
teachers, and community members, is essential for general readers
confronting the issues of 'school choice' and school funding, as
well as useful for historians of the African-American
experience."--Publishers Weekly "Ewing masterfully illuminates the
alternate realities, histories, calculations, and languages that
were at play in closing dozens of predominately Black schools in
Chicago. Those schools now reside in the ghostly world, and Ewing
acts as a keen shaman, reminding us of what has been lost and
instructing us on how to value Black children's education going
forward. A powerful book on so many levels."--Mary Pattillo, author
of Black on the Block "Bracing. . . . Most important, this book
effectively connects school closings in largely African American
neighborhoods to the devaluation of black lives in general. Ewing's
graceful prose enlivens what might otherwise be a depressing topic
in this timely, powerful read. Recommended."--Library Journal ,"A
powerful account. . . . Ewing's book thrums with an activist's
outrage. . . . Ewing gracefully melds reportage, heartbreak, ire
and history in a book that showcases the city's education and
racial tensions as a microcosm for the nation's amalgamated
woes."--New City "'A fight for a school is never just about a
school, ' Ewing notes in her bracing account . ., relying on a
blend of historical and ethnographic research to show how the
closures were only the most recent manifestation of a decades-long
pattern of disinvestment by Chicago Public Schools. . . . Ewing's
graceful prose enlivens what might otherwise be a depressing topic
in this timely, powerful read. Recommended to public, high school,
and university -libraries."--School Library Journal, starred review
"Within sociology, ethnographers are sometimes considered foot
soldiers of the discipline. The trained ethnographer enters a
community, often one that is not their own, in an effort to expand
our knowledge of the social world through an in-depth study of
culture. A good ethnography offers a revealing glimpse into a
social system, an understanding of everyday actors and insights
into how everyday actions, interactions, and events are patterned
by culture and structure. A great ethnography goes beyond this by
advancing theory and uncovering hidden truths about the social
world. Ghosts in the Schoolyard surpasses both of these measures,
elevating the ethnographic project to the status of art, even as
the polymathic author may shy away from identifying with any one
methodological tradition. Within the first few pages, readers are
not only intellectually rooted in the events surrounding school
closures on Chicago's South Side, but are fully immersed in the
scenes of a strange paradoxical world where it is the year 2013 in
one of the richest countries in the world, and the only way to
improve a school is to close it. Writing with equal parts
intellectual rigor, elan, and moral clarity, Ewing offers a
forceful reexamination of the prevailing logic that governs school
closings in majority black neighborhoods while also inviting the
reader to consider a 'dueling reality, ' another version of events
as seen from the perspectives of those most impacted by Chicago's
school closures."--Harvard Educational Review "Throughout the book,
Ewing demands that we consider the perspectives of the students,
families, and communities to whom schools belong. She insists that
we sit with their pain and mourning as they fight for and sometimes
lose the institutions that moored and connected them. And as she
breathes life into the school, making it every bit as important a
character as the people who fill it, she also expertly renders
visible, tangible, and undeniable the phantasm that looms in the
shadows of this story: racism. By plainly stating that Chicago's
school closures have been racist and providing ample evidence of
that fact, Ewing names the invisible force shaping CPS policy, and
helps us--scholars, policymakers, school leaders--imagine a path
forward. . . . Whether you're an education researcher, a
sociologist of race and racism, a teacher, a policy analyst, or
simply a member of a school community, there is something in Ghosts
in the Schoolyard for you. . . . The book is also a generative text
for a qualitative methods class, given the tour-de-force of
analytical methods Ewing uses. . . . Perhaps most important,
though, is the fact that this book is public sociology at its
best--insightful, sharp, and with a clear sense of its scholarly
lineage, without being inaccessible or unnecessarily abstruse."
--Contexts "Ewing's refusal to forgo structures for people, or
people for structures, is what makes this book incendiary."
--Allegra "This superbly written and researched account is at once
poignant and deeply troubling, blending the personal and the
academic in a way that makes the heavy subject matter accessible.
Ghosts is essential reading for anyone trying to better understand
the intersection of segregation and education--as well as the
importance of preserving the public institutions that help shape
communities."--Juan Vidal "NPR, Best Books of 2018 " "What makes
this book more than an inflated explainer on racism and school
closings is Ewing's analytic methods, and in particular how eager
she is to share them with the reader. The choices she makes, both
as a writer and as a sociologist, are well considered and explained
in the text. . . . Ewing is less interested in showing off the
depth of her reading than in convincing us that theory is more
aligned with our experiential knowledge than we might otherwise
think. One of the clearest signs of her lack of egotism is how
willing she is to cede analytic insight to the people in her
community. . . . Ewing's mission is to present critical theory and
sociology in a way that makes her readers feel capable of enacting
both."
--The Nation "The best book about education this year. . . . The
book reads like a novel. . . . Let me add that I have waited for
this book for a long time, not knowing if it would ever be written.
History told from the point of view of those who were acted on,
rather than the point of view of those at the top of the pyramid.
Whose story will be told and who will tell it? Eve Ewing has told
it. . . . I found it difficult to put down."
--Diane Ravitch "Ewing is a Harvard-trained sociologist as well as
a poet and an educator (among other things), and this comes through
in her lively and accessible writing."
--Booklist, starred review "A chilling must-read investigation of
racism in Chicago's education system. . . .In addition to its
poignant content and touching cast of characters, this book is
technically superb. Ewing's crisp prose is succinct and inviting,
never lacking in energy. This book never backs down from critiquing
the housing, education, and legal systems that contribute to the
plight of certain communities in Chicago. . . . Eve L. Ewing's
Ghosts in the Schoolyard deftly details a microcosm of a larger
picture where some people's freedoms are much more complicated than
others."
--Foreword Reviews "In Ghosts in the Schoolyard, we listen to the
anguished and angry voices of parents, teachers, students, and
community members who expose the currents of deceit, shaming, and
racism that are embedded in the bureaucratic language and metrics
that seek to rationalize the school closings on Chicago's South
Side. In this heartbreaking and revelatory narrative, Eve Ewing is
the disciplined observer, the generous witness, the probing
analyst, and the soulful poet who hears the grieving and the grace
in their 'institutional mourning.'"
--Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of
Education, Harvard University "In Ghosts in the Schoolyard, Eve
Ewing dramatically uncovers the deleterious effects of school
closings in the Chicago inner-city community of Bronzeville. With
noteworthy prose, this powerful research study illuminates the role
of implicit racism, segregation, school policy, and housing policy
in school closings and their subsequent impact on students, parents
and teachers. Ewing's revelatory analysis is a must-read for anyone
concerned about the future of urban communities, especially the
public schools populated with students of color."--William Julius
Wilson "If only for widening the scope of the debate over public
schools, Eve Ewing's new book is a welcome entry to the
conversation. Rejecting the impulse to see education as
disconnected from American life and politics, Ghosts in the
Schoolyard links the struggles of Chicago public schooling with the
city's notoriously racist housing practices. Ewing peels back the
seemingly anodyne messaging of reform ('school choice') and its
ostensibly objective standards ('test scores') to reveal the
insidious assumptions lying beneath.
Perhaps most importantly, Ewing gives direct voice to those served
by those schools often dismissed as failing. What she finds is that
these schools are often among the last working institutions in
neighborhoods which have been systematically stripped of everything
else. Mixing history, sociology, and even memoir, Ghosts in the
Schoolyard is an important addition to any conversation about the
future of public schools and those they were designed to
serve."
--Ta-Nehisi Coates "Ghosts in the Schoolyard is an engaging,
critical, and accessible analysis of the Chicago Public School
closings. With brilliant analysis and beautiful prose, Eve Ewing
lends a window into the local and national political struggles,
historical processes of marginalization and isolation, and
contemporary market logics that have produced the current
educational moment. Equally important, Ewing never loses track of
the various ways that students, teachers, and parents have resisted
the processes and discourses of school closing. This is a rare and
urgent text that should be read by scholars, parents, teachers, and
students alike."--Marc Lamont Hill, author of Nobody: Casualties of
America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
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