The ECS department has recruited a strong diverse faculty and an exceptional group of graduate students of diverse ethnicities. By building a vibrant, energetic and diverse department, we are able to enjoy an exciting intellectual climate that brings together the insights of many different research traditions and many different groups. We have a mix of scholars with overlapping research interests and strong disciplinary roots. One faculty member is an educational anthropologist (Donna Deyhle), one is an educational historian (Harvey Kantor), one is a cultural studies and educational anthropologist (David Quijada), four are educational sociologists (Leticia Alvarez, Dolores Delgado Bernal, Roderic Land, William Smith), two are curriculum researchers (Ed Buendia, Karen Johnson), two are educational philosophers (Audrey Thompson, Frank Margonis), one studies language and education (Veronica Valdez), and two study the education of Indigenous people (Donna Deyhle and Nola Lodge). Added to our research interests, our faculty bring together life experiences of African Americans, Latinas/os, American Indians, Jewish Americans, and European Americans.

ECS faculty also have a strong academic and service connection to the Ethnic Studies program at the University. One half of our faculty are jointly appointed in Ethnic Studies. Ed Buendia is the Ethnic Studies program coordinator; Donna Deyhle and Nola Lodge are on the American Indian studies faculty; Karen Johnson, Roderic Land, and William Smith are on the African American studies faculty; and Dolores Delgado Bernal and David Quijada are members of the Chicana/o studies faculty. These faculty teach a variety of courses focused on the history, social, cultural, literary, political, economic, and linguistic contexts of communities of color in the United States for the Ethnic Studies Program.