Dr. Rebeca Gamez’s research interests include relational and comparative race and ethnicity, space and place, immigration, and educational inequality, with a focus on how racialized and minoritized youth navigate their schooling, learning, and ethnoracial identities. Additionally, she has a broader interest in English Language Arts teaching and curriculum, teacher education, and critical qualitative research methodologies. She was an American Educational Research Association (AERA) Minority Dissertation Fellow. Prior to earning her doctorate in Education at Johns Hopkins University, she was a middle school literacy teacher in Trenton, New Jersey. She also has extensive experience in grassroots community organizing around financial justice, immigrant rights, and educational equity issues. 

Dr. Gamez will teach two courses this fall for LLC, as well as contribute to programmatic activities and initiatives.

 

LLC 610: Identity as Cultural Practice, Thursdays 4:30 – 7:00 pm (hybrid mode)

In this course we will define, discuss, and study identity as a cultural practice from the perspective of many disciplines and interdisciplinary fields involved in LLC. From theoretical explorations of the complexities and challenges in current identity scholarship and research to methodological approaches across the disciplines to the praxis of identity research, we will engage in a collaborative inquiry on how identity can be understood as a cultural practice anchored in particular times and spaces. 

Contact esteenrod@umbc.edu for course permission.

 

LLC 650: Ethnographic Methods, Mondays 4:30 – 7:00 pm (hybrid mode)

In this course, we will cover theoretical perspectives, research techniques and design, data management and analysis, and ethical questions pertinent to ethnographic research and qualitative research more broadly. Additionally, we will explore how to engage in ethnographic research in contemporary times, where the arrival of COVID-19 presents new obstacles to conducting ethnographic and qualitative research. Students will also have the opportunity to conduct original qualitative research as it relates to language, literacy, and culture. 

Contact esteenrod@umbc.edu for course permission.

We enthusiastically welcome Dr. Gamez to the LLC Doctoral Program! It is our good fortune to work with this up-and-coming scholar whose research background intersects with many of our students’ interests.

On March 8, 2021 Teresa D. Daniell of LLC Cohort 17 successfully defended her dissertation and earned the title of Doctor of Philosophy.

Her virtual defense went very smoothly and she gave an excellent presentation of her dissertation research, "Bridging Cultural Borderlands of Identity: Latina Veterans on Negotiating Double Minority Status in the Military."

The program wishes to acknowledge the guidance and commitment of Teresa's committee:

Dr. Christine Mallinson (LLC), Chair

Dr. Thania Munoz Davaslioglu (MLLI) Co-Chair

Dr. Carole McCann (GWST)

Dr. Beverly Bickel (LLC)

Dr. Tania Lizarazo (MLLI)