College of Education and Human Development

Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development

Roozbeh Shirazi

  • Associate Professor; Coordinator of Graduate Programs in Comparative and International Development Education

Roozbeh Shirazi

Areas of interest

Citizenship, national belonging, and youth political engagement
Comparative and International Education
Gender and education
Migration, diaspora and transnationalism
Postcolonial and Decolonial Approaches
Qualitative Methods
Secondary and post-secondary education in the Middle East

Degrees

Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University
M.A., Teachers College, Columbia University
B.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Biography

Profile

Coming to the field of comparative and international education from a background in political science, I have always sought to understand the social, political, and cultural labor that schools perform, with particular attention to how knowledge is produced about belonging and membership in diverse educational settings. My experiences as an elementary school teacher in a state-controlled district cultivated my interest in studying the cultural production of schooling through observing everyday experiences and collecting individual perspectives at the school-level with attention to the broader social, political, and policy environments in which they unfold. My research is centered on questions of justice, representation, narration, and belonging in and through education.  I have done extensive ethnographic work in urban and suburban K-12 educational settings in the US, as well as in the Middle East.  I am currently working on a digital storytelling project with newcomer youth in France.

As an instructor, I structure my classroom as a self-reflexive community of inquiry, in which students can identify, question, and reflect on their own beliefs, as well as play leading parts in shaping class discussions.  I am committed to advising and mentoring students as they creatively explore their areas of intellectual interest.  As an adviser, I welcome applications from potential students with interests in:

  • education and social change in the Middle East
  • critical theory, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and poststructuralist thought
  • gender and development
  • neoliberalism and education
  • migration, transnational and diaspora studies
  • representation and social inclusion/exclusion
  • youth citizenship and political participation

Affiliations

Professional Memberships

Courses

  • OLPD 8121—CIDE Doctoral Seminar Series
  • OLPD 8022—Education and Globalization: Anthropological Perspectives
  • OLPD 8015—Introduction to Inquiry
  • OLPD 5107—Gender, Education, and International Development
  • OLPD 5103—Comparative Education
  • OLPD 5056—Case Study Research
  • OLPD 5061—Ethnographic Research Methods

Awards

  • Office of International Initiatives and Relations Global Signatures Grant
  • Office of the Provost Grand Challenges Research Award
  • Institute of Advanced Studies Faculty Residential Fellowship
  • Institute of Advanced Studies Research Collaborative
  • Institute of Diversity, Equity, and Advocacy Multicultural Research Award
  • College of Education and Human Development Faculty Research Award
  • Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development Research Innovation Grant
  • Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement Collaborative Grant
Publications

Shirazi, R. (2020). Being late, going with the flow, always doing more: the cruel optimism of higher education in Jordan. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 33(3), 293-310.  

Shirazi, R. (2019). “Somewhere We Can Breathe”: Diasporic Counterspaces of Education as Sites of Epistemological Possibility. Comparative Education Review, 63(4), 480-501.

Nagar, R. & Shirazi, R. (2019).  Hungry Translations: Radical Vulnerability: Hungering Collectively For Justice. In Tariq Jazeel et al (eds). Keywords in Radical Geography: Antipode at 50. Oxford: Wiley.

Shirazi, R. (2018). "I’m supposed to feel like this is my home:" Testing Terms of Sociopolitical Inclusion in an Inner-Ring Suburban High School. Journal of Educational Administration 56(5), 519-532.

Shirazi, R. (2018). Decentering Americanness: Transnational Youth Experiences of Recognition and Belonging in Two US High Schools. Anthropology of Education Quarterly 49(2), 111-128.

Shirazi, R. (2018). Between hosts and guests: Conditional hospitality and citizenship in an American suburban school. Journal of Curriculum Inquiry 48(1), 95-114.

Shirazi, R. (2017).  When Schooling Becomes a Tactic of Security: Educating to Counter “Extremism.” Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education (11)1, 2-5.

Timiri, B. & Shirazi, R. (2017). Legitimate subjects: Gendered subjectivities in the Classroom. Gender and Society (28)2. 171-184.

Shirazi, R. (2017). How Much of This is New? Thoughts on How We Got Here, Solidarity, and Research in The Current Moment. Anthropology of Education Quarterly 48(4), 354-361.

Shirazi, R. (December 9, 2016). Muslim Registry Would Be Hideous... And Thoroughly American. Huffington Post.

Hantzopoulous, M. & Shirazi, R. (November 30, 2016). In a Time of Islamophobia, Teach With Complexity. Tolerance.org (website).

Shirazi, R. (2016). Youth Agency and Education: Reflections and Future Directions. In J. DeJaeghere, J. Josic, & K. McCleary (eds.), Education and Youth Agency: Qualitative Case Studies in Global Contexts (pp 251-263). Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.

Shirazi, R. (2015).  ‘These boys are wild:’ Constructions and contests of masculinities at two Jordanian high schools. Gender and Education (28)1. 89-107.

Hantzopoulos, M., Zakharia, Z., Shirazi, R., Bajaj, M. & Ghaffar, A. (2015). Rethinking the region: New approaches to social studies curriculum on MENA. Social Studies Research and Practice. (10) 1. 84-93.

Hantzopoulos, M., & Shirazi, R. (2014). Securing the state through the production of 'global' citizens: Analyzing neoliberal educational reforms in Jordan and New York. Policy Futures in Education, 12 (3), 370-386.

Shirazi, R. (2014). The pedagogy of visibility: Constructs and contests of Iranianness in a community organized school in a large southern U.S. city.  Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education 8(2), 108-124.

Updated September 2019