Rowhea Elmesky

Rowhea Elmesky is an associate professor of education whose research is centered around creating more socially just communities. She studies the sociocultural dimensions of urban educational contexts so as to improve marginalized students' access to an education that is supportive of their overall physical, emotional, and social wellbeing as well as conducive to the development of their academic identities. Her work considers the ways in which cultural and social capital, material and human resources, as well as ideology from social fields outside of schools—shape the events unfolding inside of schools. For example, she studies the impact of anti-Black racism and implicit bias on school discipline policies, and overall school culture. Through critical and collaborative research models, she strives to highlight the voices of those traditionally silenced, evident in her co-edited book, Improving urban science education: New roles for teachers, students and researchers. For the past eight years, she has been working collaboratively with a local school district utilizing research as a catalyst to build a schoolwide restorative culture of trust, respect, and shared responsibility.