Cristina S. Méndez (she/ella) is a Chicana educator, scholar, and poet. Her research focuses on the lived experiences and sense-making of Maya Mam women lideresas who organize for the vitality of their language, culture, and their communities across the United States, México, and Guatemala. Through her research and other collaborations, Cristina is committed to centering Indigenous, feminist, and decolonial epistemologies and methodologies. Cristina also engages in collaborative research with Mam community members on designing pedagogical resources for language reclamation, accessible at...
Thomas M. Philip is a Professor in the Berkeley School of Education, where he also serves as the Faculty Director of the Berkeley Teacher Education Program. He studies how ideology shapes learning and how learning is a site of ideological contestation and becoming. As a learning scientist and teacher educator, he is interested in how teachers make sense of power and hierarchy, and act on their sense of agency as they navigate and ultimately transform classrooms and institutions toward more equitable, just, and democratic practices and outcomes. His scholarship also explores...
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia is a professor at Berkeley School of Education exploring issues of equity and justice in higher education. As an organizational theorist, she seeks to understand how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) enact an organizational identity for serving Latine/x students and minoritized populations. She draws on qualitative methods including case studies, interviews, observations, and participatory research methods to explore how organizations change from predominately white to minoritized-serving. Dr. Garcia also examines the experiences of administrators, faculty, and staff...
Isaac Felix (he/him/his) is a doctoral student at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. Originally from Tijuana, Baja California, México, Isaac grew up crossing the México-U.S. border daily to attend public schools in San Diego. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Human Biology and Society and Chicana/o Studies from UCLA. Prior to pursuing his doctoral studies, Isaac worked in middle school after-school programs, interned at the California Department of Education, and served as the Faculty Diversity Center Coordinator at UC Davis’s Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Marcia C. Linn is Evelyn Lois Corey Professor of Instructional Science, specializing in science and technology in the School of Education, University of California, Berkeley. She is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). She has served as...
Derek Van Rheenen’s research interests include the cultural studies of sport, nature sports, sport tourism, ecopedagogy, the connections between sports, learning and schooling, and the role of intercollegiate athletics in the American university system. A former Academic All-American and professional soccer player, Van Rheenen teaches courses on sport, culture, and education. In 1998 he received the Outstanding Dissertation Award in the School of Education, UC Berkeley. Professor Van Rheenen has also been named a Chancellor's Public Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley....
Zeus Leonardo has published numerous articles and book chapters on critical social thought in education. His articles have appeared in Educational Researcher; Race, Ethnicity, and Education; Teachers College Record; and Educational Philosophy and Theory. Some of his essays include: "Critical Social Theory and Transformative Knowledge," "The Souls of White Folk," "The Color of Supremacy," "Schooling in Racist America," "Smartness as Property" (with Alicia Broderick), and "Dis-orienting Western Knowledge." His most recent books are Edward Said and...
Jabari Mahiri is a Professor in the Berkeley School of Education and the William and Mary Jane Brinton Family Chair in Urban Education. He is Faculty Director of Leadership Programs, Chair of the Leadership Board for the 21st Century California State Leadership Academies, Faculty Advisor for the Bay Area Writing Project, and a Board Member and Chair of the Governance Committee of the National Writing Project.
Professor Mahiri's forthcoming book is entitled "Equity Conscious Leaders: Educating for an Anti-Racist World. He also is author of Deconstructing Race: Multicultural...
Julia Zhu is a doctoral candidate in the Critical Studies of Race, Class, and Gender program at UC Berkeley’s School of Education. Her work explores the ways that college students in China perceive social class and meritocracy, and how social economic and educational changes have shaped their perceptions of social inequality and inequity.
Julia was born and raised in China. Prior to studying at Berkeley, she has obtained BA in Early Childhood Education and MA in Sociology of Education at Beijing Normal University. And she has studied at Hong Kong Education University and University...
David is a formerly incarcerated PhD candidate in the School of Education. He grew up in Berkeley and Oakland and is interested in refusing/unsettling/troubling the logics of the university and the Carceral State from an abolitionist autonomous sensibility.
