Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California – Irvine

Ph.D. Education, Stanford University, 2017
M.Sc. International Development, University of Amsterdam, 2010
B.A. Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, University of Oxford, 2008

Research and Teaching Interests
Comparative sociology of education, global and transnational sociology, education and citizenship, higher education, refugees and humanitarian emergencies, international organizations, globalization

Research Summary
I am a comparative education scholar working at the intersections of the sociology of education, global and transnational sociology, and cultural sociology.  My work draws on a variety of educational sites – education in humanitarian crises, school curricula, and universities – to unpack evolving cultural understandings of (higher) education and the social forces that shape them.  I’m particularly interested in understanding large-scale (and often global) shifts in the kinds of social goals that schools and universities are expected to advance.  For example, a recent project has focused on the growing institutionalization of education as a core pillar of international responses to humanitarian emergencies, such as refugee crises.  I explored how this shift not only broadened the boundaries of humanitarian aid – historically focused on survival – but also expanded the goals of education, which now span from long-term development to emergency relief.  In a second line of research, I have studied shifting portrayals of society in educational curricula worldwide, using data coded from school textbooks on topics such as nationalism, diversity, and human rights, as well as internationalized study programs at universities.  In addition to these lines of work, I am currently involved in a research effort to understand ongoing contestations over the institutions promoted by the post-World War II liberal international order, with particular focus on universities.  You can view publications from these projects here.

To support my research in education, I have been awarded a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship.