College of Education Post-Docs
Sarah Katherine Braden
As a postdoc in the College of Education at the University of Utah I am honored to be working on two main projects. First, I am collaborating with Dr. Lauren Barth-Cohen, Educational Psychology, to redesign and teach EDU 5375: Elementary Science Methods. Under Dr. Barth-Cohen’s leadership we have created a course that prepares pre-service teachers to facilitate young learners’ use of evidenced-based reasoning to explain the natural phenomena they experience in their daily lives. I am also excited to be infusing the curriculum for EDU 5200/6200: Teacher Language Awareness with my perspective as a language socialization researcher.
Sarah Katherine Braden
Second, in addition to teaching for the Urban Institute of Teacher Education, I am also pleased to be advancing two strands of research while serving as a postdoc in the College of Education. The first strand comes from my dissertation work and focuses on understanding the processes (cultural and linguistic) by which racial and linguistic minority students become marginalized or disenfranchised from K-12 science. The second strand of research focuses on understanding how teachers develop scientific observation skills. I am excited to be collaborating with Dr. Barth-Cohen on this second strand of research.
Deniece Dortch
Deniece Dortch joined the University of Utah in the fall of 2016 as postdoc research fellow and the inaugural Program Manager of the African American Doctoral Scholars Initiative (AADSI)- a campus-wide research intensive program focused on the recruitment, retention and holistic development of African American doctoral students. She earned her Ph.D. in Higher & Postsecondary Education Leadership from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master’s of Education degree in Higher & Postsecondary Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a Master of Arts in Intercultural Service, Leadership & Management from the School for International Training in Vermont.
Deniece Dortch
She uses critical phenomenological approaches to understanding how African American
undergraduate and graduate students experience and respond to race and racism at predominantly
white institutions of higher education. She is especially interested in how psychological
violence is experienced, manifested and reproduced in the academy. Dr. Dortch’s research
has been published in the Journal of Negro Education, Teachers College Record, NASPA
Journal about Women in Higher Education, New Directions in Higher Education, and the
Journal for the Study of Sports and Athletes in Education.
In support of her work in diversity equity and inclusion, Dortch was recently awarded
the Bringing Theory to Practice Grant from the American Association of Colleges and
Universities which will focus on a racial justice dialogue series at the University
of Utah designed to engage participants in racial justice allyism, advocacy, and community-building
beginning this Spring. Her postdoctoral work not only tackles race, but also grapples
with systemic oppression across multiple axes. Prior to Dr. Dortch’s postdoctoral
work, she served as a program director for Texas AM University where she is the co-founder
of Sista to Sista, a co-curricular leadership development program designed to foster
a sense of connectedness amongst Black female college athletes. Deniece is a returned
United States Peace Corps Volunteer who served in both Morocco and Jamaica. She is
from Holland, MI.
Nadia Granados
Nadia R. Granados received her doctorate degree from the Language, Reading & Culture program in the Department of Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include community literacies, literacy processes, biliteracy, bilingualism, academic literacies, language and community, and women’s literacies. She began as a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Utah in January of 2016.
Nadia Granados
As a postdoctoral fellow, she has been working towards the creation of a proposal for a new education non-teaching undergraduate degree, and has also been helping to coordinate the University of Utah institutional membership for the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD). This year she is also teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Education, Culture and Society, and the Urban Institute for Teacher Education.
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