A tradition of activism
The name of the lab reflects a long tradition of student activism that Annamma and Banks wanted to honor and emphasize, a tool that young people have used for generations to push for change in society and education.
“Walkouts are some of the most powerful organizing tools students have in schools,” Annamma said. “Sometimes when youth decide to stand up for themselves, adults will downplay it and say they’re being manipulated by other people. But if you’ve ever worked with students, you know they’re often very certain about the choices they’re making.” (The exclamation point in the name, she said, is a symbol of that certainty.)
In staffing the lab, Annamma included three formerly incarcerated young Black women she’d met through an earlier research project. In individual projects done through the lab, she will consult formerly incarcerated youth from across the country.
“My first questions to them are: What do you want people to understand about youth prisons? What do you want them to know about the time you spent there?” Annamma said. “It was really important to make their voices central to the aims of this lab. They’re sharing the kinds of questions they want answered, and they’re going to learn research skills and how to do data collection and analysis, along with policy change.”
Graduate students and faculty from Stanford and other universities will also bring their expertise to the lab as fellows. “The work has to be interdisciplinary,” said Annamma. “It has to cross geographical and generational spaces. There is no solving these problems without multiple kinds of expertise and backgrounds.”
Uncovering identities and experience
The Walkout! Lab recently launched a two-year project, funded through a grant from the Ford Foundation, aimed at better understanding the population in youth incarceration and how education policies and practices influenced their paths. (Annamma uses the term incarceration to refer to any location youth are sent to after being removed from their homes, including juvenile detention and residential treatment centers.)