Current Team Members
Dr. Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandez research and scholarship are concerned with questions of symbolic boundaries and the dynamics of cultural production and processes of identification in educational contexts. He is the Principal Investigator of the Urban Arts High Schools Project, a study of specialized arts programs in public schools across the United States and Canada, and the author of The Best of the Best: Becoming Elite at an American Boarding School, and ethnographic study of processes of elite identification and the production of privilege. Currently, he is the Director of the Youth Research Lab at the Centre for Urban Schooling of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, where he is Principal Investigator of the Youth Solidarities Across Boundaries Project, a participatory action research project with Latinx and Indigenous youth in the city of Toronto. At the YRL, he also oversees and supports several youth participatory action research projects, including the editorial board of in:cite, a youth-run online research journal, as well as a study of the practices of participatory facilitators. His theoretical work focuses on the relationship between creativity, decolonization, and solidarity.
Kaitlind Peters is a current doctoral student in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Her research focuses on Indigenous and reconciliatory education. Kaitlind is the project lead for YPAR. Her role is to recruit and both engage and support Indigenous and Latinx students in the development of participatory action research projects focused on decolonial and Indigenous methodologies. Kaitlind also co-faciliates the TDSB high school credit program with Indigenous and Latinx students.
Andrea Vela Alarcón is an educator, illustrator and community artist based in Tkaronto. She holds an MA in Adult Education and Community Development from OISE, where she is currently pursuing her PhD in the Curriculum and Pedagogy program. Her professional background involves a diverse of community-engaged projects entangled with popular education and cultural production. Her research aims to explore the relationship of extractive capitalism, environmental violence, and gender violence through creative encounters with cis-women from Iquitos, a city in the Peruvian Amazon.
Dr. Cristina Guerrero is a Secondary Learning Coach with the Toronto District School Board. In this role, she leads professional learning and supports teachers with the implementation of equitable and inclusive practices across various school subjects. She also works closely with school administrators on school improvement initiatives aimed at increasing student success and well-being. Qualified as a secondary school teacher since 2005, she has taught many courses in the Humanities and Social Sciences, including Spanish, Civics, Gender Studies, and Equity Studies. Dr. Guerrero has also taught various courses in OISE/University of Toronto’s Master of Teaching program, including Education Research, Fundamentals of Teaching and Learning, and Anti-Discrimination Education. Her doctoral dissertation draws from joint TDSB-OISE/University of Toronto study “Proyecto Latino” and addresses how Latinx students engage with youth participatory action research (YPAR) and take up issues of cultural identity, community engagement, and transformative learning. This work has helped inform further work in the TDSB with other Latinx youth as well as youth from the Black, Indigenous, and Portuguese communities.
Dhanela Sivaparan was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. She is an educator, youth advocate, community engagement director and social activist. She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Social Justice Education at the University of Toronto. She is a leader in improving the access for racialized youth in post-secondary education. Dhanela’s academic and professional work has enhanced supports and programming for racialized youth in secondary and post-secondary institutions in Toronto. Her research interests lies at the intersections of identity, race and space; and understanding how learning, storytelling and cultural arts are appropriate ways of healing and resilience for racialized communities. Dhanela has promoted social justice through her proactive leadership roles with the SJE Student Caucus UofT Executive, UTGSU Council, U of T‘s Native Students’ Association, Co-Chair for Women and Gender Studies Students Union, UTUCR first-ever Criminology Journal, WGSSU Intersections Volume 3 Journal, U of T TRC Steering Committee Final Report, UME Office of Indigenous Medical Education and U of T‘s Council of Aboriginal Initiatives. She has also co-authored her first children’s book Gavin’s Hidden Talent. Dhanela’s goal is to inspire young people to dream, write, build positive relationships and give back to their communities.
Meagan Hamilton is a PhD student and her research focuses on decolonization and student partnerships. She examines what mutually beneficial student partnerships look like. Hamilton is also currently in her ninth year of teaching high school, and spent the last two years teaching in Singapore. She completed her MEd at OISE in Community Development and Aboriginal Health. Hamilton is also a member of the in:cite team.
Naima Raza is currently in her final year studying Urban Studies, Human Geography and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Naima has worked as the Student Voice Coordinator for the Lambton Kent District School Board, supporting youth in becoming agents and constructors of their learning and schooling experiences. She has also been involved in supporting programming to improve equitable outcomes for students through the Ministry of Education’s Student Achievement division. In the broader Toronto community, Naima has been involved in organizing to remove police officers in TDSB high schools, and volunteering with Literal Change, an organization that provides remedial literacy support for people who are incarcerated and youth in contact with the law. Naima has also organized for struggles of anti-racism, anti-capitalism, and Islamophobia in Toronto's Muslim community, through the Muslim Justice Collective and U of T Multi-Faith Centre.
Mike Carlson is mixed Indigenous from the west coast (Interior Salish with family connections to the Osoyoos Band). Mike's professional impact comes from his work as a high school teacher, financial planner and non-profit director. He is currently the YPAR instructor for the TDSB's class working with Indigenous and Latinx students.
Madeleine Ross is currently pursuing an M.Ed. in Social Justice Education at OISE. She is a facilitator and community-based YPAR practitioner with interests in participatory policymaking, public health, and social identity formation. Madeleine is currently supporting The WhyPAR Podcast at the Youth Research Lab.
Sarah Switzer is a Toronto-based popular educator and community-based participatory researcher. Inspired by fifteen years of working at the intersections of community arts, peer/youth programming, and HIV and Harm Reduction, her larger program of research and teaching explores how to creatively and meaningfully engage communities who experience marginalization in programs, policy change, and collaborative knowledge translation efforts. Her research interests include critical approaches to participation and engagement (including youth engagement), pedagogy in community-based settings and participatory visual methods.
Oliver Thompson is pursuing an MT at OISE. He is helping to produce the WhyPAR podcast as part of the Youth Research Lab. Previously, he completed a MSt in English Literature and American Studies at the University of Oxford, as well as a BA in English with Study in North America at the universities of Exeter and Toronto. He is also a radio journalist, and has worked for both the BBC and the CBC as a documentary producer. His interests include decolonization, trauma-informed teaching strategies. and the arts in education.