Speakers

Confirmed

Anjali Adukia is an assistant professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Adukia completed her doctoral degree at the Harvard University School of Education, with an academic focus on the economics of education. Her research is focused on understanding factors that influence educational decisions and the potential role for institutions, such as government agencies and nonprofit organizations, to improve child outcomes, particularly at the intersection of education and health. Her current work examines how the provision of basic needs—such as sanitation, clothing, and transportation—can increase school participation in developing contexts.

Lesley Bartlett, Professor at University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an anthropologist working in the field of Comparative and International Education. Her research and teaching interests include migration and education; literacy studies; teacher education and teacher research; and qualitative research methods. Her recent publications include Rethinking Case Study Research: A Comparative Approach (co-authored with Frances Vavrus, Routledge, 2017), Teaching in Tension: International Pedagogies, National Policies, and Teachers’ Practices in Tanzania (co-edited with Frances Vavrus, Sense Publishers, 2013) and Additive Schooling in Subtractive Times: Bilingual Education and Dominican Immigrant Youth in the Heights (co-authored with Ofelia Garcia, Vanderbilt University Press, 2011).

Emily Bent is Assistant Professor in Women’s and Gender Studies at Pace University in New York City and the Co-Chair of the Working Group on Girls at the United Nations. Her work has been published in Girlhood Studies, Feminist Formations, Global Studies of Childhood, and Sociological Studies of Children and Youth, where her article, “A Different Girl Effect: Producing Political Girlhoods in the ‘Invest in Girls’ Climate” was named Outstanding Author Contribution in the 2014 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. She earned a doctorate in Global Women’s Studies from the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2013.

Peter Demerath is an Associate Professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development, and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. His major research interests include the role of class culture in the perpetuation of social inequality through education; student acquisition of psychological capital; and the development of improvement-oriented school culture. His 2009 book, Producing success: The culture of personal advancement in an American high school, is now in its second printing with the University of Chicago Press.

Barbara Dennis is a Qualitative Research Methodologist who draws purposefully from critical and feminist theoretical thought. She has engaged internationally through participatory educational inquiry with Ugandan scholars on topics of peace and educational justice. As someone interested in core methodological concepts, Barbara aims to nuance practice as theory.

Dr. Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher is a Senior Lecturer in the Literacy, Culture and International Education Division at the University of Pennsylvania where she is also the Associate Director of the international Educational Development Program. A graduate of Teachers College, Columbia University, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher has a doctorate in International Educational Development (concentration: Curriculum and Teaching), and a professional diploma in School Psychology from Fordham University. Her research has focused on the socialization, academic engagement and civic commitments of migrant children and youth, especially from Muslim communities in the US. Her practitioner work has been around teacher education and curriculum development both in the US and abroad through local and international NGOs, USAID, and UNESCO.

Shenila Khoja-Moolji researches and writes about the interplay of gender, race, religion, and power in transnational contexts. She explores this theme particularly in relation to Muslim populations. Dr. Khoja-Moolji is currently working on a book that combines historical and cultural studies analyses with ethnographic work to examine the construction of the figure of the ‘educated girl’ in colonial India and postcolonial Pakistan.

Huma Kidwai is an education consultant at the World Bank, in Washington DC, supporting projects ranging from early childhood education to higher education and skills development in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia and Pacific region. She has a doctoral degree from Teachers College – Columbia University; her research focused on the relationship between the state and madrassas in India. Her other professional experiences include projects with the Poverty Reduction Group of the World Bank; projects related to health and social equity at the Praxis Institute for Participatory Practices in New Delhi; and education programs and research at the Earth Institute’s Global Center in Mumbai on their Model District Education Project.

Patricia Parker (Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin) is chair of the Department of Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is also an associate professor of critical organizational communication studies and director of the Graduate Certificate in Participatory Research. Parker is co-editor (with Larry Frey) of the new book series at the University of California Press, “Communication and Social Justice Activism.” She is finishing a book for the series, Living Ella Baker’s Legacy, which documents a multiyear participatory research study with African American girls in under-resourced communities leading social justice activist campaigns.

Leigh Patel is an interdisciplinary researcher, educator, and writer. Her work addresses the narratives that facilitate societal structures. With a background in sociology, she researches and teaches about education as a site of social reproduction and as a potential site for transformation. She works extensively with societally marginalized youth and teacher activists. Professor Patel is the award-winning author of Decolonizing Educational Research: From Ownership to Answerability (Routledge), Youth Held at the Border: Immigration, Education and the Politics of Inclusion (Teachers College Press), co-author of Critical Literacy: Context, Research, and Praxis in the K-12 Classroom (Sage) and co-editor of ReConstructing the Adolescent: Sign, Symbol and Body (Peter Lang Publishers). She is currently working on her next book entitled, "To study is to struggle: Higher education and settler colonialism"

Oren Pizmony-Levy is an Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research interests lie in the areas of comparative sociology of education, globalization and transnational sociology. Through diverse set of research methods (quantitative, qualitative and social network analysis), he examines the roots and impact of global educational movements – including international large-scale assessments, environmental and sustainability education, and LGBT education. He recently completed a large-scale study of the local reception of TIMSS and PISA in public discourses and public opinion worldwide. Dr. Pizmony-Levy earned his Ph.D. in Sociology and comparative and international education from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Gerardo Blanco Ramírez, Ed.D. is Assistant Professor of International Higher Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. His research explores the intersections of quality, branding and position taking in the context of global competition in higher education. This analysis incorporates critical perspectives of globalization and internationalization. Gerardo is an internationally engaged scholar and his research and teaching span across four continents. His work has been published in the Comparative Education Review, Higher Education, and Studies in Higher Education, among many others. He has been visiting faculty at Shaanxi Normal Universiyt in Xi’an, China and his recent activity has focused on Canada, Bangladesh, Mexico and Ethiopia.

Dr. Lilliana Patricia Saldaña is from San Antonio, Texas, and is an Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies at UTSA. She received her BA from Boston University in English and International Relations with a concentration in Latin American Studies and holds a Master of Arts in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies. She also holds a Doctorate in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A decolonial and Chicana feminist scholar in education, Saldaña’s research centers on Chicana and Chicano teacher identity and consciousness, as well as epistemic struggles in Chicana/o education. She has published in nationally recognized journals, including Latinos & Education, Decolonization: Indigeneity, education & society, and Association of Mexican American Educators Journal. She currently serves as Associate Editor of Chicana/Latina Studies, the premiere journal in the field of Chicana/Latina Studies and the flagship publication of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. As an activist scholar, Saldaña is also involved in local social justice organizations, and university-community partnerships, and is active in state-wide organizing efforts to establish MAS in Texas public schools.

Riyad A. Shahjahan is an Associate Professor of Higher, Adult and Life Long Education (HALE) at Michigan State University. His areas of research interests are in globalization of higher education policy, temporality and embodiment in higher education, cultural studies, and de/anti/postcolonial theory. He has been conducting both empirical and theoretical work, focusing on a) the role of transnational actors/processes (international organizations, global rankings, media) in globalizing higher education policy; and b) rethinking the traditional objects of study/practice in higher education (e.g. temporality, pedagogy, social justice, and/or globalization) from global and non- western critical perspectives.

Fran Vavrus is a Professor in the Program in Comparative and International Development Education at the University of Minnesota. Her research focuses primarily on secondary and teacher education in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular interest in Tanzania. She has published four books and numerous articles on teacher education, education policy, research methodologies, and the impact of secondary school on the lives of African youth. Dr. Vavrus is also a member of the Joint ILO-UNESCO Committee of Experts on the Recommendations Concerning Teaching Personnel, which reviews global teacher education policies and working conditions of teachers.

Dan Wagner is the UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy, and Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Director of the International Literacy Institute, co-founded by UNESCO and the University of Pennsylvania and Director of Penn’s International Educational Development Program in graduate study. Dr. Wagner has extensive experience in national and international educational issues, and has served as an advisor to UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, USAID, DFID, and others on international development issues. In addition to over 175 professional publications, Dr. Wagner has written/edited 25 books. His latest book is Learning as Development: Rethinking International Education in a Changing World.