We are delighted to welcome another new colleague to ESRI. Dr. Stephanie Daza joined ESRI as a Research Fellow in June, from the University of Texas-Arlington. Stephanie earned her doctorate in Cultural Studies and Social and Cultural Foundations of Education at The Ohio State University, under the supervision of Patti Lather and Peter Demerath (in the School of Educational Policy and Leadership), and Abril Trigo (in Latin American Cultural Studies). Based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, her dissertation examined local responses to globalization in Colombian higher education and particularly student responses (e.g. graffiti, strikes, referendums, etc.) to civic education policy and curriculum post Colombia’s new constitution of 1991. Subsequently she has worked at Eastern Michigan University and UT Arlington.
At Ohio State, Stephanie developed and directed an office of New Diversity Initiatives to address the needs of Middle Eastern students post-September 11th. She also helped build Latino/a Studies and Ethnic Studies. She is currently working on a book on STEM culture and grant-science based on six years of research on two National Science Foundation grants aimed at diversifying Science Technology Engineering and Math education and careers. Stephanie has core interests in research methodology and critical ethnography, with articles in, and forthcoming in, Educational Theory, Qualitative Inquiry (read here), International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (read here and here), Race Ethnicity and Education (read here and here), and Educational Studies.
Formerly, Stephanie served as the Postcolonial Studies and Education co-chair in the American Educational Research Association; a US Peace Corps Volunteer in Bolivia; and a public school teacher in California and Ohio, USA. On a personal note, Stephanie is the co-parent of Santana, age nine; he has dual citizenship and lives part of the year in Colombia, South America. She is based in Old Chapel 1.9 so do drop by and say hello if you haven’t met Stephanie already.