Isabel Castellanos

Isabel C. Castellanos earned her Ph.D. in teacher education and curriculum studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on expanding views of what authentic experiences on race, ethnicity, and culture may look like in the classroom, and in out-of-school educational spaces that draw on media-making, arts, and technology for student expression. Through ethnographic research methods, including video-cued ethnography, she examines how these media-making spaces are unique in offering students and teachers with a critical multicultural awareness that are based in real-life and authentic experiences. She has taught courses concerning bilingual, multilingual, and multicultural education, controversial issues in education, and using technology, media, and the arts for equity and social justice at the College of Education, UMass Amherst. Prior to completing her Ph.D., Castellanos was the director of youth media at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network, a community media center in New York City.