Cati V. de los Ríos is an Associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and Culture at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. In summer 2026, she will become the Interim Director of Berkeley's Teacher Education Program (BTEP). de los Ríos's research applies critical, sociocultural, and translingual theories to examine the literacy and language practices of immigrant and bi/multilingual youth populations. Her ethnographic, community-based, and participatory research is situated at the axes of literacy studies, educational anthropology, civic and political learning, and ethnic studies, with an...
Patricia Baquedano-López is Professor of Education at the Berkeley School of Education. Trained as a linguistic anthropologist and as an applied linguist at UCLA, she is a scholar with a long-standing interest in the education of racialized and minoritized students in schools. She draws from decolonial and Indigenous thought in her recent projects on transnational Indigenous sovereignty and education in the Maya diaspora Yucatan-California. She is a member of the Decolonial Knowledges and Pluriversal University working group at the Latinx Research Center at UC Berkeley which is dedicated...
Rafa is a doctoral candidate in the Language, Literacy and Culture cluster at the Berkeley School of Education. His work focuses on understanding how literacy and technology shape learning in formal and non-formal educational spaces, particularly in rural areas in Latin America. More specifically, Rafa's work seeks to understand how literacy practices shape and are shaped by people's political economy, and how these practices can become windows into the civic projects marginalized communities are trying to build beyond, and sometimes in opposition to, global development projects. Some of...
Kristin Keane is Assistant Professor of Reading Development in the Berkeley School of Education. She uses mixed methods approaches to study literacy development and instruction in elementary schools, paying special attention to the ways multimodal and digital literacies—including technological approaches—can enhance engagement, comprehension, and dialogic discussion of varied types of text, especially for multilingual students and those labeled as disengaged or behind by their institutions.
With a particular focus on research practice partnerships, she works with teachers, school...
Asha Nidumolu (she/her) is a doctoral student in the Language, Literacy and Culture cluster of UC Berkeley’s School of Education. Her research interests lie at the intersections of sociocultural theories of literacy, teacher education, ethnic studies pedagogy, translingual pedagogies, and Cultural Historical Activity Theory. As a researcher and educator, Asha studies the liberatory potential of co-constructed learning environments that engage multiple ways of languaging and meaning-making.
Asha has 8+ years as a public school educator. She has taught high school Ethnic Studies and...
Bird Sellergren is a Ph.D. student in Education at the University of California, Berkeley, within the Language, Literacy, and Culture cluster. They are an educator and disability justice advocate committed to advancing autism acceptance and self-advocacy. Bird’s research examines autism not only as a neurotype but also as a political and cultural identity, exploring autistic epistemologies and relationality through the lenses of disability justice, decoloniality, and critical theory.
They serve as Executive Director and head facilitator of Bay Area Autism Collective, a nonprofit...
Josephine Ingram (she/her) is a doctoral student and Chancellor’s Fellow in the Language, Literacy, and Culture cluster at UC Berkeley's School of Education, advised by Kris Gutiérrez. Her research interests include gender and literacy, queer youth activism in schools, and teaching about collective action. Theoretically, she looks to decolonial thought, Marxism, and queer theory; methodologically, to ethnographic, design-based, and quantitative research methods. Currently, she is a Graduate Student Instructor for Glynda Hull’s “The Art of Making Meaning”. She is a Junior Editor and...
Henry Sales Leonel Hernandez is a third-year doctoral student and Graduate Student Instructor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture cluster at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Education. A first-generation college student from an Indigenous Maya Mam immigrant family from Guatemala, Henry’s life and scholarship are grounded in resilience, community, and a deep commitment to cultural revitalization. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and their daughter.
Growing up in San Juan Atitán, Guatemala, Henry developed a profound connection to his Mam heritage,...
Yared Portillo is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at UC Berkeley’s School of Education with a focus on Language, Literacy, and Culture. She is a jaranera, leonera, guitarist, poet, and music teacher with over 15 years of experience. Raised in an agricultural Latine immigrant community in Santa María, California, her research interests sit at the intersection of music education, translanguaging pedagogies, and sociocultural approaches to learning. Yared’s research and teaching are influenced by her years as a grassroots immigrant rights community organizer in...
Aloha kākou! Kourtney Kawano (she/her) is a wahine ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian woman) from the village community of Nānākuli on the island of Oʻahu. She is an Assistant Professor at the Berkeley School of Education.
As a settler in Ohlone territory, Dr. Kawano pays her respect to the Indigenous caretakers of xučyun by centering place-based stories and histories in her research and teaching. A critical race resistance scholar and a graduate of Native Hawaiian culture-based schooling, Dr. Kawano embraces the proverb “ʻAʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi (all knowledge is not taught in...
