2024 Curriculum Inquiry Writing Fellows

Jodi Aguilar

Jodi Aguilar (They/Them) is a Queer, Non-Binary Chicanx doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Literacy, Language, and Culture program in the department of Curriculum and Instruction, as well as a Gender and Women's Studies concentrator. My transdisciplinary dissertation research, Envisioning Queer Chicanx Futures in Education: Centering Testimonios de Trans, Non-Binary y Queer Chicanx Educators in Chicago, places Trans, Queer, and Non-binary (TQNB) educators of color at the center of queer and trans studies, reflecting critical conversations that challenge disciplinary constraints, hegemonic, and status quo neoliberal educational agendas. Through testimonio (story-telling) methodology and queer Chicana feminist zine-making, I analyze how the lived experiences of TQNB Chicanx educators in Chicago make futuristic, cariñoso (tender care), and artivist interventions toward queering education. Beyond research commitments Jodi enjoys watching Gilmore Girls, Film Photography, Crafting, Zine Making and Record Digging. 

LaTasha Hutcherson Price

LaTasha Hutcherson Price (she/her) is an Adult Education Literacy Coordinator at Central Georgia Technical College. She is a Southern Regional Educational Board Fellow graduate, as well as PhD graduate from UGA’s Language and Literacy Education Program. At UGA, she also earned a Certificate in qualitative research. Dr. LaTasha Hutcherson Price is a graduate of The University of Georgia’s Language and Literacy Education PhD Program. She is currently and Adult Education Literacy Coordinator and Faculty Instructor at one of Georgia’s great Technical Colleges.  LaTasha’s journey in Education began in 1998, in Inglewood, CA when she discovered her strengths in employing an arts-based pedagogy as a substitute and long-term teacher.  It was during that period that she also began to work in the entertainment industry as a professional actress and hip-hop dancer.  She performed in national commercials, televisions shows, independent films, and Off-Broadway.

During her tenure at UGA, she artistically interpreted and contributed to research in the form of acting, dancing, rapping, and in spoken word poetry in course work, at conferences, and within research projects. As such, LaTasha is an ardent advocate of arts-based research, especially research inclusive of hip hop literacies. One of her proudest moments was serving as the Journal of Language and Literacy Education’s Editor of Poetry, Fiction, and Visual Arts, where she made grade strides in growing the section. LaTasha has maintained this focus at national conference presentations (NCTE, LRA, AERA), and in peer reviewed journals in which she is sole and co-author. LaTasha credits centering Black girls in her research and study as expanding as well as confirming her pedagogical compassion for all students and their multi-literacies, including dance.  As a professional actress that often performs under the moniker Rich, LaTasha envisions freedom as an open space to serve fully as both Educator and Artist. 

Chris Jadallah

Chris Jadallah is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Justice in Education in the School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA, where he is also affiliate faculty at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and Center for Near Eastern Studies. Jadallah's scholarship examines the social, cultural, and political dimensions of environmental education, with a focus on the relationships between learning and socioecological transformation. He is additionally a seedsaver, growing and sharing Palestinian heirloom seeds in community with other farmers and land stewards in California. 

Tanushree Sarkar

Tanushree Sarkar (she/her) is a Preparing Future Faculty for Inclusive Excellence postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Her research examines how the global spread of educational theories, policies, and practices affects the lives and experiences of teachers and children with disabilities in the global South. Tanushree’s research and teaching are driven by her experiences growing up as a disabled woman and her work with education non-profit organizations in India. She received her BA in Psychology from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, her MSc. in Social and Cultural Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and her Ph.D in Community Research and Action from Peabody College, Vanderbilt University. 

Tanushree’s dissertation, funded through the Margaret McNamara Education Grant, examines teachers' experiences of enacting inclusion within school-NGO partnerships in India and advances how time and temporality are entangled in the pursuit of inclusive education. This dissertation was awarded the 2024 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Disability Studies in Education SIG, American Educational Research Association, the 2023 Newbrough Graduate Award from Vanderbilt University, and received an Honorable Mention for the 2024 Gail P. Kelly Outstanding Dissertation 2024 from the Comparative International Education Society. Her research can be found in peer-reviewed journals such as Comparative Education, International Journal of Inclusive Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and Compare. Tanushree enjoys writing poetry, biking, doing yoga, and making art in her free time.

Steph Schuurman-Olson

Steph Schuurman-Olson (she/they) is an education researcher, musician-educator, and vocalist based in Camrose, AB. There, she teaches ECE and undergraduate music courses (UofA, Augustana), and K-6 music in the public school system. She holds Kodály Levels I&II certification, an MEd (UBC), BEd (UBC), and BMus (UBC), and is completing her PhD at the University of Alberta. Current research includes From the Voices of Children, with Dr. Ardelle Ries, investigating children’s singing identities and attitudes, and a research-creation project with Dr. David Lewkowich investigating contemporary sound art applications within school-based literacies. Her doctoral research interrogates the pathologized unagentic construct of the child and investigates the potentialities of a collaborative improvisational singing-based pedagogical practice, connecting young children to future and present human and environmental ecologies. Steph is a 2023-2025 Killam Laureate and is supported by the Killam Trusts. 

Desmond Wong

Desmond Wong (he/him) is a doctoral candidate and librarian at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in the Social Justice Education Department. His research focuses on bringing Black and Indigenous young people into conversation with community memory practices and archives. He believes that memory is an important nexus between community belonging and practice and that youth have significant contributions to those conversations. Desmond is passionate about thinking beyond modes of facilitation toward archival practices that centre youth agency and dreaming. He has extensive experience in the world of library and archives and hopes to bring that knowledge to benefit racialized and marginalized communities in presencing and resistance.