AboutMe
I recently earned my Doctorate in Education from UCLA, where I graduated as Valedictorian and received the Excellence in Scholarship Award in 2012 and 2013, as well as the Alumni Dissertation of the Year Award in 2013. The American Educational Research Association (AERA) named me an Emerging Scholar in Post-Secondary Education in 2013. I have lectured in English, Literature, and Critical Media Literacy at the university and community college levels.
My publications have addressed white male privilege and microaggressions in higher education, and Critical Media Literacy in Teacher Education. My current projects include collaborating with colleagues at UCLA to author a Critical Media Literacy textbook, collaborating with USC faculty to promote Critical Media Literacy, and a study investigating community college students' higher education aspirations. As my personal interests include critical approaches to popular culture, my current essay (in print) examines Monsters University through a Foucauldian lens; under review is an essay examining Transparent within the context of dispossession.
My partner and I recently co-authored a children’s book (under review) for gender-expansive children and the people who love them and we hope to see it in print soon. The common thread throughout my work is that I believe popular culture can provide the context through which students can critically examine controversial topics to challenge injustice that too often goes examined as "normal."