Educational research and practice focused on Hip Hop is a robust and rapidly expanding area of research. One testament to the growth of Hip Hop scholarship is the magnitude in which individual papers, symposiums, and presidential sessions are represented at American Educational Research Association [AERA], the leading educational professional organization representing educational researchers. Sessions focused on Hip Hop are well attended at AERA, and in some instances are standing room only. Many of these Hip Hop sessions reflect the most cutting edge research within larger, previously sterile academic disciplines that position Hip Hop on the margins.

For these reasons, a petition to establish this AERA Special Interest Group [SIG] was submitted in 2013 by Joycelyn Wilson, Bettina L. Love, Chris Emdin and Ruth Nicole Brown. On July 24, 2015, the AERA Executive Committee approved the petition for a new SIG-in-Formation and with kicked off with a paper session to present the individual work of each SIG officer as well as discuss the professionalization of Hip Hop pedagogy as a field of educational research. Below is a list of the papers presented, which were chaired by Gabriel Joey Merrin and Kate Rollert.

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• Imagining Mattering: Hip Hop Civs Ed, Intersectionality, and Black Joy [Love]

• Festival Hopping with Run The Jewels: Contemporizing Race Relations in Hip Hop Pedagogical Performance [Wilson]

• Towards a Framework for the 6th Element: Reality Pedagogy for #HipHopEd(ucators) [Emdin]

• Black Girl Genius [Brown]