Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Department Chair

 

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Ann Marie Ryan, Ph.D. is professor and chair for the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching (ILT) at UTSA. She teaches courses in ILT and Curriculum and Instruction. Her areas of focus are teacher preparation, secondary education, the teaching of history and social studies, and the history of education and curriculum history. Her teaching and research concentrate on the connections between teaching and learning in P-12 schools, communities, and teacher preparation. Within the history of education, she specializes in examining intersections between Catholic schools and public education policy in the United States from the early to mid-twentieth century. Ann Marie has published in top-tier journals including Teachers College Record, The History of Education Quarterly, The Journal of Teacher Education, Review of Research in Education, and the American Journal of Education. 

Ann Marie has served as a co-editor for the Review of Research in Education. She and the editorial team worked on a volume focusing on teaching practices in P-20 educational settings and a second volume examining the quality of research evidence in education. She served as the Program Chair for Division F (History and Historiography) of AERA in 2017 and the President of the Organization of Educational Historians in 2019. She currently is Co-PI on the IES UTSA Pathways grant project. UTSA Pathways supports undergraduate students preparing for doctoral studies in education research by providing opportunities to learn about research, engage in education research, and be mentored by experts in their fields.   

Dr. Ann Marie Ryan, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair

Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Faculty

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Dr. Iliana Alanís, a native of South Texas, is a Professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Texas, Austin in Curriculum and Instruction with specializations in Multilingual Studies and Educational Psychology. She engages teacher candidates and practicing teachers for their work in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms with a primary focus on the rights of young children to develop their native language and cultural identity. Dr. Alanís uses a sociocultural lens to examine effective pedagogical practices in early childhood, dual language contexts. She has over 50-refereed publications; her most recent book is Translingual partners in early childhood elementary education: Pedagogies on linguistic and cognitive engagement. Peter Lang Publishers.




Iliana Alanis, Ph.D.
Professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education
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Biography

Dr. María Guadalupe Arreguín earned her doctoral degree in Bilingual Education at the Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Her work illuminates the intricacies of cultural and linguistic factors that influence minority students’ access to education in early childhood and elementary bilingual settings, specifically in the area of science education. Her research on dyad learning and dialogue, mobile learning, critical science pedagogy, and the intersections of language and social justice has been published in top venues in the field, such as the Journal of Latinos and Education, the Bilingual Research Journal, the Journal for the Education of the Gifted, the Journal of Environmental Education, and Action in Teacher Education.
The American Educational Research Association (AERA), Bilingual SIG selected Dr. María Guadalupe Arreguín, Professor of Early Childhood & Elementary Education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching as the recipient of 2014 Bilingual Education Research SIG Early Career Award.

 

María Guadalupe Arreguín, Ph.D.
Professor

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Emily Bonner is an Associate Professor in Curriculum and Instruction specializing in mathematics education. Her research focuses on equity and access in mathematics, community-based mathematics, and teacher professional development in mathematics and STEM. Current funded projects include the Community Mathematics Project, a collaboration with Northwest Vista College that includes a parent tutoring program facilitated by prospective teachers. Dr. Bonner was the Director for SAMC (the San Antonio Mathematics Collaborative) and is the Co-Director for SEE Math (Support and Enrichment Experiences in Mathematics). She serves as Assistant Dean for Research and Faculty Development in the College of Education and Human Development and is currently chair of the UT System Faculty Advisory Council.





Emily Bonner, Ph.D.
Professor
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Dr. Richard Boon is an Associate Professor of Special Education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching in the College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He received his Ph.D. in Special Education from George Mason University and earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Purdue University.

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Boon, Ph.D.
Professor
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Guadalupe Carmona-Dominguez, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Executive Director of ConTex
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Langston Clark is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the College of Education and Human Development. Langston completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a concentration in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) at The University of Texas at Austin. Before obtaining his Ph.D., he received his M.A. in Adapted Physical Education from The Ohio State University and a B.S. in Physical Education from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (A&T). Given his experience as an undergraduate at A&T, a Historically Black College/Universities (HBCUs), he has developed a passion for the continued development and elevation of minority-serving institutions. Dr. Clark's research focuses on the training of Black physical educators and kinesiologists at HBCUs. His other research interest includes the intersections of athletics, race, and education.

Dr. Clark has over 20 research publications featured in The Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, The Journal of Negro Education, Quest, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, and The Journal of Black Psychology. He has also participated in 40 national and international research presentations. For his accomplishments as a researcher, Dr. Clark has been awarded the Mabel Lee Young Professional Award and the Leroy T. Walker Young Professional Award, which recognizes the commitments of young scholars dedicated to social justice by the Society of Health and Physical Educators of America.

As a public intellectual, Dr. Clark is the founder and host of Entrepreneurial Appetite, a series of events dedicated to building community, promoting intellectualism, and supporting Black businesses. Recordings of these discussions are available on the Entrepreneurial Appetite Black Book Discussions Podcast. Additionally, he has been a featured guest on several podcasts, including What's New in Adapted Physical Education, BAME PE, Black + in Grad School, and Playing with Research in Health and Physical Education.

Dr. Clark is committed to increasing the quality of the Black experience in higher education. Through service as an Alumni Fellow in The Heman Sweatt Center for Black Males at The University of Texas at Austin, he actively participates in mentoring Black males through higher education. As a dedicated alumnus of North Carolina A&T State University, Dr. Clark founded From A&T To Ph.D., a community of support for Aggies in the doctoral pipeline. At UTSA, he is the faculty leader of the Black Student Initiatives fundraiser, which is designed to support programming for Black student leaders. To date, this initiative has raised over 20,000 dollars.

Langston Clark, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

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My work is focused on practicing toward the possible: Preparing teachers for the way schools can be, rather than simply preparing teachers for schools as they currently are. This approach requires an understanding of the history(ies) of literacy as a field and education more broadly. Looking back to the past can inform the present and help us reconsider where we are heading. In order to prepare teachers for this important work, teacher educators must provide experiences that are grounded in theory and that provide them with opportunities to engage with students, families, and communities in ways that disrupt deficit approaches that are prevalent in many schools and classrooms.






Samuel DeJulio, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Email | CV

 

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Biography

Uchenna Emenaha is a Houston native with West African roots. She has a variety of teaching experiences having taught upper elementary school, middle school, and high school. She is currently an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at San Antonio in the College of Education & Human Development. Her research informs and is informed, by culturally responsive teaching practices and is grounded in inquiry-based constructivist teaching strategies that address the specific needs of all students; with an emphasis on marginalized student populations. At its core, her work consists of a varied body of literature that bridges the gap between social issues, science/STEM instruction, and students' lived experiences. When she is not conducting research, she enjoys writing poetry, working out, and spending time with her favorite little people, which include a niece, nephews, and two small dogs.




Uchenna Emenaha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
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Dr. Ewoldt is a special education researcher focused on interventions and accommodations to maximize learning in inclusive settings. Her research includes teaching paragraph writing skills to students with Learning Disabilities and English learners, the integration and implementation of technology in inclusion classrooms, and service animal policy. She has seven years’ secondary classroom teaching experience with culturally-, linguistically-, and ability-diverse populations in urban environments. Dr. Ewoldt has helped train puppies for future service to assist individuals with visual impairments and has recently co-authored an article Service Animals in PreK-12 Schools: Legal & Policy Implications for School Leaders. Dr. Ewoldt is an Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Department at the University of Texas at San Antonio.





Kathy Ewoldt, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Email | CV | Website

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Carmen Fies is a STEM educator who is particularly interested in exploring ways that support diverse learner populations through technology-mediated learning opportunities.










Carmen Fies, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
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Zaid M. Haddad is an Assistant Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies & Curriculum and Instruction and a member of the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. 

As a teacher educator and social justice advocate, my research interests in understanding the ways we negotiate our many intersecting identities as we encounter new and changing contexts. Prior to joining the faculty at UTSA, I was a visiting faculty member and doctoral student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Before pursuing my Ph.D., I taught high school social studies and was a student council advisor for five years.

At UTSA, I maintain an ambitious research agenda and provide service within my fields of study at the local and national levels. I teach courses at the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral level.

 

Zaid Haddad, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

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Janis M. Harmon is a Professor of Literacy Education at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She received her Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in Educational Theory and Practice. Her publications reflect her research interests which include children’s and young adult literature and effective middle school and high school literacy programs with a special emphasis on vocabulary acquisition and instruction. She teaches both undergraduate and graduate literacy courses for educators interested in teaching at the middle school and high school levels.

  

 

 

 

Janis Harmon, Ph.D.
Professor

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Rosalind Horowitz is a professor of Discourse and Literacy Studies in the Reading and Literacy Program of the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching of the College of Education and Human Development with a joint appointment in the Department of Educational Psychology.  Dr. Horowitz earned her B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. at The University of Minnesota's Twin Cities Campus with graduate work at Harvard University and the Hebrew University - Jerusalem.  She has been a Visiting Scholar at The University of Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and in Russia and the Ukraine.

Dr. Horowitz is Chair of the American Educational Research Association, Special Interest Group (SIG) on Research in Reading and Literacy, has been a member of several Divisions of AERA, has served as a member of the Executive Council overseeing 140 SIG's of AERA.

 

 

Rosalind Horowitz, Ph.D.
Professor

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Dr. Crystal Kalinec-Craig is a graduate of the University of Houston (2001, B.S. Mathematics), Texas A&M University (2006, M.S. Mathematics), and the University of Arizona (2012, Ph.D. Teaching and Teacher Education). Her primary area of teaching and research lies at the intersection of elementary and middle grades mathematics teacher education and issues of (in)equity and social justice. She has published in the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, Journal of Research in Mathematics Education, and ZDM. Her blog helps teachers to learn more about the Torres' Rights of the Learner as a means of redistributing the power in classrooms towards students and their ideas.






Crystal Kalinec-Craig, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

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María Leija, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
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Dr. Yi-Fan Li earned her Ph.D. at Texas A&M University with a major in Educational Psychology and emphasis in Special Education. Before she came to the U.S., she was a special education teacher for five years, mainly teaching students with intellectual disabilities, autism, and multiple disabilities in a high school. During her teaching career, she had the experience of being a transition coordinator. This valuable experience led her to keep exploring the transition education for individuals with disabilities. Her hobbies are driving and cooking. Texas is her second home.







Yi-Fan Li, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Instruction

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Vittorio Marone is an Associate Professor and the Coordinator of the Instructional Technology Program in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at The University of Texas at San Antonio. He earned his doctorate in Education in a dual-degree program at the University of Padua and the University of Tennessee. He also holds a doctorate in Languages, Cultures, and Societies from Ca' Foscari University of Venice. His research interests include new literacies, youth cultures, humor, playful learning, and affinity spaces. He presented his work at national and international conferences such as AERA (American Educational Research Association), APME (Association for Popular Music Education), and G4C (Games for Change). He is the author of the book La Quotidianita' dell'Assurdo (The Everyday Absurd, Archetipolibri, Bologna, 2010).





Vittorio Marone, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
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Miriam G. Martinez teaches reading and children’s literature courses at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research and publications focus on children’s responses to literature and on their understanding of various literary genres and formats. In addition to articles in various journals, her publications include Children's Books in Children's Hands, Thinking and Learning through Children's Literature, and Books Come Alive, to be published in 2021. She is actively involved in the Children’s Literature Assembly, the National Council of Teachers of English, the International Literacy Association, and the Literacy Research Association. She has served as co-editor of the Journal of Children’s Literature and the Journal of Literacy Research. She has served on various award committees including the Caldecott, the Geisel, and the Sibert Committees.





Miriam Martinez, Ph.D.
Professor
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“Land is, therefore we are." Bang et al. (2014) In the Carrizo/Comecrudo language, the ancestral place name of San Antonio, Texas, is Yanawena, meaning "the place where I rest my head."

In Coahuilteca, a pidgin language shared many distinct Indigenous peoples across the greater region, the term Yanaguana means "spirit waters."

Either version is acceptable as a respectful form of acknowledgment of the land, water, and many generations of caretakers of the greater community, which includes the Estok'Gna, Coahuilteca, Tlaxcalteca, Apache, and Comanche, as well as assorted other band-based peoples Indigenous to the territories now called south Texas. These are my ancestral territories and familial genealogies.  I am honored to live and work in San Antonio as a critically engaged educator/activist/scholar/relative/community member. 

 

Marissa Munoz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

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Bekisizwe S. Ndimande is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. He conducts research in the areas of curriculum studies, education policy, multicultural education, and international education. He has published a book, several journal articles, and book chapters. His book, Privatization and the Education of Marginalized Children: Policies, Impacts and Global Lessons, (co-edited with Christopher Lubienski) was published by Routledge in 2017. Other publications include Pedagogy of the Township in Sonia Nieto (Ed .), Dear Paulo: Letters from Those who Dare Teach; and Lutas Docentes nas Escolas Públicas para negros na África do Sul pós-apartheid in Cadernos de Educação (a Brazilian journal). Dr. Ndimande’s article, From Bantu Education to the Fight for Socially Just Education (in Equity & Excellence in Education) was among the 18 articles selected by Taylor & Francis Press as representative of the interdisciplinary nature of social justice studies. Dr. Ndimande earned his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.



Bekisizwe Ndimande, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
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Biography 

Kaitlin Popielarz, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at UTSA. Dr. Popielarz is a former secondary and adult education social studies teacher, which is where she developed her passion for empowering learning communities. Her research and teaching interests include connecting teacher education programs to youth-centered and intergenerational grassroots community movements, knowledges, and organizations in order to provide future and current educators the opportunity to learn community-based and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Dr. Popielarz teaches Service-Learning in Social Studies Grades 4-8, Theory of Curriculum and Instruction, and Research in Action. She is energized by collaborating with colleagues, students, and community members in the development of critical qualitative research projects that inform possibilities for transformative social change within schools, teacher education programs, and local communities. Dr. Popielarz is an advocate, action researcher, and community organizer for education justice.


Kaitlin Popielarz, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
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Rica Ramirez, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
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Rachel Kaminski Sanders received her doctoral degree in language and literacy education from The University of Georgia after producing a dissertation solely in the form of a museum exhibition. Using skills she acquired as an undergraduate in an apparel design program to write her research, Rachel brought attention to taken-for-granted traditions in education that continue to marginalize individuals through the privileging of written language, and subsequent marginalization of other language forms, through the language of dress. Rachel seeks to broaden the types of scholarly research compositions traditionally accepted within higher education, an area she feels is imperative to advancing academic research. Prior to her doctoral program, Rachel taught seventh grade writing at a public arts magnet school in a rural district located in the state of South Carolina.  Rachel is currently an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She teaches courses focusing on adolescent reading and writing, as well as classroom management strategies.


Rachel Sanders, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Email | CV | Website

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John Sutterby is an associate professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. He is part of the early childhood program. His research interests include play, play environments, natural learning and English Language Learners.










John Sutterby, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
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Timothy T. Yuen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching. Dr. Yuen’s research interests include broadening diversity and improving student success in computer science and engineering across the education pipeline. He currently has two grants funded by the National Science Foundation to support his research: CS4SA-HS: Developing a collaborative of secondary computer science teachers to increase Latinx participation in CS (NSF #1923269) and Collaborative Research: Uncovering the Effects of Stereotype Threats on Latina/o Students’ Success in Undergraduate Engineering (NSF #1925630). He is an active member of education special interest groups of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Dr. Yuen is the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Sciences, Joint Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science in the College of Sciences, and Courtesy Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. Dr. Yuen received his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Instructional Technology from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his B.S. in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine, and his M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Southern California.

Timothy Yuen, Ph.D.
Professor and Assistant Department Chair
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Emeritus

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Gillian E. Cook
Professor Emerita
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Blanche Desjean-Perrotta
Professor Emerita
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Dr. Roxanne Henkin, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching at The University of Texas at San Antonio, earned her doctorate from Northern Illinois University and has 18 years of teaching experience in public schools. She then taught at National-Louis University in Chicago before joining the faculty at The University of Texas at San Antonio in 2003. Dr. Henkin’s research interests include confronting bullying through literacy, inclusive classrooms, supporting LGBTQ+ students, critical literacy for social justice, writing process and instruction, in-service staff development in literacy, and multiliteracies and multimodal digital literacies. She has published many articles and two books, Who’s Invited to Share: Using Literacy to Teach for Equity and Social Justice and Confronting Bullying: Literacy as a Tool for Character Education, both published by Heinemann.

Roxanne Henkin
Professor Emerita

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Christine Allen Mosley
Professor Emerita
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Priscilla E. Pate
Professor Emerita
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Bertha Perez
Professor Emerita
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Sue E. Wortham
Professor Emerita
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College of Education and Human Development
Main Building | One UTSA Circle | San Antonio, TX 78249
Phone: 210-458-4370 | education@utsa.edu