The Educational Studies Program at Trinity College welcomes Jia-Hui Stefanie Wong as a two-year visiting faculty member, beginning in Fall 2017. Professor Wong is completing a joint Ph.D. degree in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her dissertation, “White Dominance in Diverse Schools: When Multiculturalism and Social Justice Aren’t Enough,” is based on a 16-month ethnographic study of how students and teachers perceive and challenge inequalities at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school. Despite the school’s commitment to social justice, her study examines how White supremacy and privilege persist within its power structures. She also co-authored an article on the racialization of Asian American immigrant students in Educational Studies.
Professor Wong’s interdisciplinary training and field-based experiences make her an ideal fit for Trinity College. As an undergraduate at Swarthmore College, she majored in Educational Studies and Political Science, minored in Chinese, and collaborated with faculty on an ethnographic study that she later presented at a research conference. This experience not only shaped her desire to pursue graduate school, but also her dedication to create similar fieldwork and research opportunities for undergraduate students. Furthermore, she adds that “my experiences as a woman of color on predominantly White college campuses will help me effectively mentor and support students of color at Trinity. I have learned how to negotiate spaces that are not always welcoming to people of color, and to create spaces that value the diverse knowledges and experiences of a range of students.”
Drawing on her teaching experience at UW-Madison, Professor Wong will offer courses at Trinity such as Educ 200: Analyzing Schools (fall and spring), Educ 320: Anthropology and Education (fall 2017), and Educ 309: Race, Class, and Ed Policy (spring 2018).
