Members of the Education Department attended and presented at the American Educational Research Association, held in Los Angeles, CA from April 8–12. Assistant Professor of Education Alexandrea Melgoza gave a talk titled “Agents of New Knowledge: A Transcendental Phenomenology of BIPOC Mothers Traversing Texas’ Special Education.” Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz and education and Spanish double major Ximena Ling Uribe ’28 presented research from a 2025 SURF project, titled “Towards a model of culturally sustaining pedagogy for Roma youth.”

Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz and SU alumna Rebecca Ramirez ’24 published an article titled “An undue burden: The impact of censorship laws on Ethnic Studies teachers in Texas” in the Ethnic Studies Pedagogies Journal. This article analyzes conversations and surveys with middle and high school ethnic studies teachers in Texas about the impact of censorship legislation (Senate Bill 3, passed in 2021) on their teaching.

Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz and SU alumnae Rebecca Ramirez ’24 and Laura Carrasco Torres ’25 published an article titled “Centering community in fugitive pedagogy: Pláticas with Chicana Ethnic Studies teachers” in Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. This article analyzes the impact of censorship legislation (Senate Bill 3, passed in 2021) on middle and high school Mexican American Studies teachers.

Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz published the manuscript “Solidarity in labor organizing: The alliance between the Black Panther Party and the United Farm Workers,” in the Black History Bulletin (BHB), volume 87, issue 2. The manuscript examines the collaborations between the Black Panther Party and the United Farm Workers in the 1960s and 1970s and includes a project-based lesson on solidarity in labor organizing for a high school U.S. History course. This manuscript is part of a special issue on African Americans and Labor.

Assistant Professor of Education Raquel Sáenz Ortiz attended the International Migration Research Network (IMISCOE) annual conference in Lisbon, Portugal in July. She presented, with Melina Bountris ’22, “Culturally responsive instructional strategies for immigrant-origin youth in Austria,” based on research conducted while Melina was completing a Fulbright Teaching Assistantship in Austria. She also presented, with Zehra Çolak of Utrecht University, “Co-constructing a pedagogy of radical belonging: Pláticas on teaching for social justice,” which is based on a chapter that has been accepted to be published in the Handbook of Social Justice in Education. In addition, Dr. Sáenz Ortiz co-led a workshop, titled “Towards decolonial futurities: On reimagining the university,” along with Zehra Çolak of Utrecht University, Zakia Essanhaji of VU Amsterdam, Dounia Bourabain of Hasselt University, and Leila Mouhib of Université libre de Bruxelles and Université de Mons.