How are the monsters and mysteries of the U.S.-Mexico border and cultural influences on student learning and cognition related? They are the research areas of the 2014-15 National Center for Institutional Diversity’s postdoctoral fellows, William Calvos-Quirόs and Wanda Casillas.
As members of an expansive national network of 300 NCID-affiliated scholars, their projects represent the complexity and nuance of contemporary diversity research.
Calvos-Quirόs, hosted by the Department of American Culture, focuses on the U.S.-Mexico border region as both a space of conflict and struggle, and a land teeming with fantastic tales and imaginary creatures.
He holds two Ph.D.s, one from the University of California, Santa Barbara and another from Arizona State University.
Casillas will work at the Combined Program in Education and Psychology in the School of Education. Her research situates culture in the context of students, educators and evaluators, and integrates this with scientific reasoning and evaluation methodology. Casillas holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University.
“We are delighted to welcome Wanda and William to U-M at such an important time in their careers,” says NCID Director John C. Burkhardt. “Digging deeper into the various implications of diversity within society and for its institutions is one means by which NCID seeks to influence a greater commitment to inclusion and full participation in higher education.”
Established in 2008, NCID’s postdoctoral program brings two early-career scholars to the university for a yearlong fellowship. Supported by the provost, this highly competitive fellowship offers protected research time, faculty mentorship and career development for innovative diversity scholars, who are extremely attractive for tenure-track faculty positions.
This program highlights a key NCID goal to increase faculty diversity within American higher education.
