Research
My research explores the intersection of social epistemology and adult learning, with a focus on how individuals in post-truth societies navigate—and transcend—epistemic bubbles and echo chambers. Central to my work is an investigation of the psychosocial dimensions of knowledge acquisition, retention, transmission, and assessment, particularly as they relate to moral reasoning, social identity formation, and reflective judgment.
In an era marked by fragmented information ecosystems and polarized discourse, adult learners occupy a critical space: they are both products of entrenched sociocognitive frameworks and agents capable of transformative epistemic growth. My research examines how adults interrogate and revise entrenched beliefs, particularly when confronted with disinformation, ideological polarization, or conflicting evidence. I interrogate the mechanisms by which individuals:
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Reconcile moral intuitions with epistemic responsibility, balancing personal values against the demands of critical inquiry.
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Negotiate social identity in knowledge communities, navigating tensions between belonging and intellectual autonomy.
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Cultivate reflective judgment, developing the metacognitive skills to assess the reliability of sources, the validity of claims, and the ethical implications of knowledge practices.
Drawing on interdisciplinary frameworks from philosophy, cognitive psychology, education, and sociology, I analyze how adult learners rebuild epistemic agency in contexts where trust in institutions and experts is eroded. My work emphasizes the role of liberatory praxis in fostering intellectual humility, collaborative inquiry, and adaptive resilience. I also investigate structural barriers—such as algorithmic curation of information and neoliberal inequities in access to education—that perpetuate epistemic isolation.
This research aims to contribute actionable insights for educators, policymakers, and community leaders seeking to design interventions that empower adults to critically engage with complex information landscapes. By illuminating pathways out of epistemic entrenchment, I seek to advance a vision of lifelong learning that prioritizes not only individual intellectual growth but also collective epistemic well-being in a pluralistic democracy. Ultimately, I strive to bridge empirical research and normative theory, fostering societies where knowledge is not merely acquired but ethically lived.
My philosophical framework is rooted in liberatory praxis—the symbiotic interplay of critical reflection and transformative action—as a means to dismantle oppressive systems and cultivate collective freedom. Grounded in the works of Paulo Freire, bell hooks, Frantz Fanon, and other critical theorists, this framework rejects neutrality in education, insisting instead that teaching and learning must be acts of resistance, healing, and reclamation. Below, I outline the core pillars of my approach, weaving together feminist, decolonial, Marxist, and critical race theories to advance a pedagogy of radical hope and embodied justice.
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Praxis as Revolutionary Dialogue
“Education either functions as an instrument to bring about conformity or becomes the practice of freedom.” —Paulo Freire
Liberatory praxis begins with dialogue that bridges theory and lived experience. Drawing on Freire’s conscientização (critical consciousness), I frame education as a collaborative process where adult learners interrogate the sociopolitical conditions shaping their epistemologies. This dialogue is inherently feminist (hooks, Lorde) and decolonial (Mignolo, Quijano), centering marginalized voices as sites of knowledge production. By engaging learners in problem-posing rather than banking education, we co-create narratives that expose power structures—capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy—and imagine alternatives.
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Intersectionality as Epistemic Resistance
“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” —Audre Lorde
My work prioritizes intersectionality (Crenshaw, Lorde) to confront the multiplicative violence of systemic oppression. Following Angela Davis and Toni Morrison, I analyze how race, gender, class, and coloniality coalesce to regulate access to knowledge and dignity. For adult learners in post-truth societies, this means:
Critiquing epistemicide: Challenging the erasure of Indigenous, Black, and queer knowledges (Mignolo, Lugones).
Embodied inquiry: Recognizing how marginalized bodies carry histories of resistance (Fanon, Morrison).
Solidarity across difference: Building coalitions that honor pluralistic truths without relativizing oppression (Lugones’s world-travelling).
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Decolonizing Knowledge and Being
“Decolonization is not a metaphor.” —Tuck & Yang
Informed by Indigenous and decolonial theories (Quijano, Mignolo, Tuck & Yang), my framework rejects the Eurocentric, neoliberal logics that fragment knowledge and commodify learning. Instead, I advocate for:
Relational epistemologies: Learning practices rooted in reciprocity, land-based wisdom, and communal accountability.
Unsettling coloniality: Exposing how modernity/coloniality constructs hierarchies of humanity (Quijano’s coloniality of power) and perpetuates epistemic bubbles.
Reclamation as praxis: Supporting learners in recovering subjugated histories and languages, fostering what María Lugones calls “decolonial love.”
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Radical Imagination as Collective Liberation
“Without new visions, we don’t know what to build, only what to knock down.” —Robin D.G. Kelley
Liberatory education demands radical imagination—a Marxist-feminist commitment to envisioning worlds beyond capitalist exploitation and carceral logics (Davis, Marx). This involves:
Critical hope: bell hooks’s insistence on education as “the practice of freedom” amid despair.
Prefigurative politics: Creating microcosms of justice within classrooms (e.g., democratic decision-making, resource sharing).
Joy as resistance: Following Toni Morrison, centering joy and creativity as acts of defiance against dehumanization.
Methodological Commitments
My praxis is embodied through:
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Participatory action research: Collaborating with communities to design curricula that address localized oppressions.
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Testimonio: Amplifying first-person narratives as pedagogical tools (a la Latina feminist epistemology).
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Abolitionist pedagogy: Dismantling punitive educational structures and fostering restorative, learner-centered spaces.
Vision
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I strive to create educational ecosystems where adult learners are not merely “critical” but creators of liberatory futures. By intertwining Marxist critiques of capital, feminist ethics of care, and decolonial demands for land/body sovereignty, my work seeks to rupture epistemic bubbles and equip learners to re-member—to piece together fragmented selves and societies. In a post-truth world, this is not just academic: it is a lifeline.
My Philosophy of Education
LaTeX
When I started my master's in linguistics at the University of Utah, I was introduced to LaTeX by a couple of professors. LaTeX is a software system for typesetting documents. LaTeX markup describes the content and layout of the document, as opposed to the formatted text found in WYSIWYG word processors like Google Docs, LibreOffice Writer and Microsoft Word.
It was very useful, especially since linguistics uses a lot of special formatting in subfields like syntax and semantics. I used it to format my master's thesis at the U because there was already a U of Utah thesis package and I only had to worry about the writing instead of the formatting.
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In fact, I continued to use LaTeX throughout my second master's degree at Bowling Green State University because the documents it makes are just so beautiful, compared to those created by Microsoft Word or Google Docs. There are APA 7th Edition packages (as well as many many others) and utilizing BetterBib with Zotero makes incorporating citations a breeze. If you are interested in learning about my LaTeX process, feel free to click on 'Learn More' below.
