From 2004-2006 Kayhan was part of a team of artists, educators, academics and students convened by Barnard College to experiment with the possibilities in art and story to teach/learn about race and racism and to develop practical pedagogical tools. Out of this emerged a storytelling model, curriculum, and professional development workshops that would engage people in critical examination of racism and finding proactive ways to work against racism in their own communities, through the arts. 

In 2010, Lee Ann Bell, the principal researcher and then head of Barnard’s Education Program, wrote a book on the theories, methods, and praxis of this project. Kayhan and Dipti Desai later published an essay in Culturally Relevant Arts Education for Social Justice.