A Cultural Historical Approach to Social Displacement and University-Community Engagement: Emerging Research and Opportunities (Advances in ... Administration, and Leadership (Aemal)) - Softcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Charles Underwood was Executive Director of University-Community Links at the Graduate School of Education, UC Berkeley, until his retirement in 2020. Since 1996, he has directed a number of University of California statewide initiatives (including University-Community Links) developing innovative uses of digital media for teaching and learning, both in and out of school. An anthropologist (Ph.D., Anthropology Dept., UC Berkeley) and classical scholar, he is the author of Mythos and Voice: Displacement, Learning and Agency in Odysseus' World. His research focuses on social displacement and learning, the sociocultural context of learning, and inter-institutional collaboration as a cultural historical process. As an anthropologist, he has worked in Scotland, India, Brazil and in diverse communities in California. He continues to work with community and university partners throughout the world to address social and educational inequities through sustained collaborative efforts that reach across cultural, institutional, and geographical boundaries.

Mara Welsh Mahmood has been involved with UC Links since 1996, when she was a graduate student at UC Riverside, teaching the UC Links undergraduate practicum course and serving as the site coordinator for the UC Links program at a local elementary school. Upon earning her PhD in developmental psychology in 1997, Mara joined the UC Links statewide office as the Director of Site Development and Evaluation, where she stayed until 2004, when budget cuts forced the program to eliminate staffing. She went on to teach at UC Davis and worked as an educational consultant to local and statewide agencies and organizations evaluating 21st Century Community Learning Centers after-school programs; facilitating strategic planning projects; and developing grant proposals. Mara has studied and written about learning within and across multiple contexts including K-12, higher education, after-school, as well as out-of-school learning in São Paulo, Brazil. She returned as Associate Director of UC Links in 2018 and is currently serving as Interim Executive Director.

Olga Vásquez has examined the intersection of literacy, language, and culture in intercultural settings. As an ethnographer of education, her work covers bilingual education, culturally responsive curriculum, and access to educational resources by underrepresented groups. Currently, she is involved in the study of sustainable innovative educational activities that provide a range of literacy activities through computer and telecommunication technology.