The Center for Multicultural Education

Michael D. Blackwell earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in government from Wesleyan University, a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in social ethics from Boston University. He became Director for Multicultural Education at the University of Northern Iowa in the fall of 1995. He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Michael is very involved in the local community, and his primary interests—scholarly, professional, and personal—concern redressing the plight of the poor and otherwise disadvantaged. He is an ordained minister and has served pastorates in Baptist and United Methodist churches.

For a year and a half, Michael worked in various ministerial capacities in churches and in community agencies, then decided to enroll in a doctoral program at the Graduate School of Boston University. He worked as a Peace with Justice intern for the School of Theology and took courses in the Division of Religious and Theological Studies and also in the summer institutes at the W. E. B. Du Bois Center of Harvard University. In the Fall of 1986, he began his teaching career at Curry College, where he remained as an instructor for three years, and in the fall of 1990, he took a job as an assistant professor of religious studies at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield. At SMSU, he was instrumental in starting an African American Studies Minor and a Multicultural Resource Center. He was involved in a number of community agencies, such as the Interfaith AIDS Network, the Cable Television Commission, the Minority Affairs Council of the School Board, the branch office of the NAACP, and the Advisory Board of Springfield Public Television. Defending his dissertation in the summer of 1992, he was installed as pastor of Pitts Chapel United Methodist Church and became a lecturer for the Missouri Humanities Council. After being awarded his Ph.D., with distinction, in Social Ethics from B.U. in Jan. 1994, Michael began a weekly television show about minority affairs on the local PBS station. In addition, he was a featured columnist on the editorial page of the local newspaper, The News-Leader.

In the fall of 1995, Michael relocated to Cedar Falls where he became Director for Multicultural Education and an adjunct professor in philosophy and religion at the University of Northern Iowa. He coordinates the programs and activities of the Center for Multicultural Education and teaches subjects such as Christian Moral Thought, Religion and Ethics, the African American Religious Experience, Religions of the World, The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and American Racial and Ethnic Minorities. While here, Michael has conducted a number of workshops on multicultural education and on building a diverse workplace and community. In addition, he has chaired the committee that has created a new American Ethnic Studies Minor on campus.

Michael has published in the areas of social ethics, pacifism, the Black Church, and spirituality. Recently, he has written a chapter on the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., and is writing another book on the church and social action. He has taught also at Southern Connecticut State University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Boston University. Michael likes to write poems and short stories, and enjoys reading biographies and mysteries.