Greetings and welcome to my substack. I’m a recently tenured professor of education at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, in the Learning Sciences program. I have a PhD in STEM education from UC Berkeley, and a BS/MS in Electrical Engineering from UCLA. Formerly I was an Assistant Professor of education at the University of Texat at Austin, where I also was the Associate Director of Equity and Inclusion for the Center on STEM Education. Before life as an academic, I was an engineer in California, working in a variety of large and small companies in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, including several start-ups. I have served as the director of a STEM outreach program at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Oakland, CA, and have taught high school computer science classes in public as well as charter schools in the Bay Area. My scholarship and academic writing draw from all of these experiences and have centered on issues residing at the intersections of education, culture and identity, science and technology, and social justice.
Why I’m writing on substack and what to expect
What I plan to write here will certainly reflect my academic interests and expertise, but my hope is to enage in more expansive, experimental, and creative writing across a range of issues including but not limited to topics that I address in my research and scholarship. In addition to being a scholar and educator, I’m also a dad of 5 kids (yes, 5 KIDS!!), a husband, a child of Iranian immigrants, and more.
While I do draw on a range of my identities and life experiences in some of my research, academic writing has its limitations. Like other academics on substack, I will use this space to share insights from research, provide informed commentary, but also to clarify my own thinking as well as work through new ideas. I will also experiment with different modes of writing, such as creative non-fiction and autoethnographic storytelling. Ultimately, this will be a window into my world of academia, education, learning, and parenting. You can expect commentary and perspectives on the following topics:
K-12 Public education in the US with specific attention to STEM and computer science education.
Learning, ethics, and technology. I’m really interested in understanding and supporting youth learning about the ethics and politics of tech, particularly AI and other advanced and emerging technologies that have significant consequences on society and the planet. As founder and director of the NSF-funded Technology, Race, Ethics, and Equity Lab (TREE) at Northwestern University, as well as the Young People’s Race Power and Tech Project, I’ll share updates and perspectives from our research and advocacy in this area.
Historical and global perspectives on education. I’m currently writing a book on the history of an engineering institute in Iran with two postdoctoral fellows (forthcoming with MIT Press), which I’ll share more about as we get closer to publication.
Being a scholar in the academy. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I just got through tenure, and I’m still processing the journey. I’ll share reflections on what I’ve learned, and share some resources for my fellow academics. And specifically being on the tenure-track while also…
Being a parent of 5. I have 2 lovely stepdaughters, one who just graduated from Howard University and is studying for the MCAT, and the other is on her way to Stanford to study African American studies and journalism. Then there’s our 3 young sons including twin 2-year-olds who are enrolled in a Montessori pre-school. Our oldest son just finished Kindergarten at our local public elementary school in Evanston, IL (Oakton Elementary), just outside of Chicago. I’m on this parenting journey with my wife (the brilliant dr. kihana miraya ross) who is prof of Black Studies at Northwestern University, with a Ph.D. in Education. You can imagine our kitchen table conversations about our children’s experiences across the full range of preK-16 educational contexts they inhabit. Some of those conversations will make their way to this space.
If these are some topics that resonate with you, please subscribe, engage, and share.
