in relation
Meet The Team
RESEARCH TEAM
Project Lead
Dr. Meixi
Dr. Meixi is a Hokchiu learning scientist, former teacher, and assistant professor in Comparative and International Education Development in the department of Organizational leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. She has been working with Redes de Tutoría grassroots movement since 2011 and supports the Tutoría network in Thailand and México. She is particularly interested in Tutoría as a kind of community-based participatory learning that sustains lands, life, and families. A scholar in Indigenous education, she studies the relational, cultural, political and ethical dimensions of human learning and development in relation to macro sociopolitical structures such as trans-indigenous movements, cultural-historical contexts of learning and how to collectively design for socioecologically thriving futures.
​
She/Her
Team Member​
Dr. Katie Johnston-Goodstar
Dr. Katie is a youth worker and Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota's School of Social Work. She uses Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Indigenous methodologies to promote community health. She has worked for many years on youth-led social transformation including projects of educational justice; environmental justice; sexual exploitation and the recovery of land and lifeways for wellness.
​
She/Her
Team Member
Dr. Maria Schwedhelm
Dr. Schwedhelm is a writer, scholar and teacher educator. She earned her PhD in Second Language Education at the University of Minnesota, where she explored the possibilities of embodied pedagogies to (re)imagine equitable multilingual spaces and to create and enact processes and practices of language and culture reclamation. Maria is engaged in multiple research and pedagogical collaborations in Mexico and Minnesota, including an Ojibwe language learning project, research on language policy implementation and land-based education.
​
She/Her
Team Member
Erma Mujic
Erma Mujic is a third year Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota in Comparative and International Development Education and Human Rights. Situated in a refugee camp in Greece, her research explores themes around refugee youth’s education, particularly how they navigate non-formal education spaces and gender norms to imagine and pursue their educational aspirations. She blends her research interests with humanitarian practice by centering community voices and experiences through community-based and participatory design.
​
She/Her
Team Member
Miguel Vázquez
Lic. Miguel Vázquez a national academic coordinator in CONAFE Chiapas with a degree in community based work and human development. He was a former CONAFE instructor and currently provides academic support for the two regions in Chiapas. He has supported the two visits from the team in the U.S. to Chiapas and is also currently part of the research team.
​
He/Him/His
AUGUST 2022
Ph.D Student
Yessica Berumen Martinez
My name is Yessica Berumen Martinez. I am a second-year Ph.D. student in the department of Anthropology at the University of Minnesota. My research interest is investigating the commemoration of migration through material culture and oral history. I was inspired by this project by the enormous potential of local temas. The hope that everyone can share a Tema (Lesson Theme) of personal interest or of local context is wonderful. I see it as a way of documenting and preserving current and past knowledge, practices, and traditions.
Contact Information:
​
She/Her
Ph.D Student
Washington Galvão
Washington Galvão is a Ph.D. student in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development in the Comparative International Development Education track. He is from Vitória, Espírito Santo – Brazil. Having grown up in a favela, Washington is a son of a raízeira and is a learner. His work is centered around Indigenous teacher education, language policies, and community-based education. Lately, he has been navigating Afro and Indigenous epistemologies and chasing comprehending Afro and Indigenous futures through education as a mean of self-determination.
Email: galvo003@gmail.com
​
He/Him/His
Ph.D. Student
Miguel Angel Ovies-Bocanegra
Miguel Angel Ovies-Bocanegra is currently pursuing a doctorate in Learning Science at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. His research interest investigates the development and maturation of culture, cognition, ethics and political sense-making that emerge in moment-to-moment interactions. Specifically, he aims to design, sustain and promote epistemological alterity using a sociohistorical approach that advances and strengthens learning partnerships in and out of school settings. Miguel holds an M.Ed in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and MPA from Southern Utah University.
​
He/His