Lisa Schwartz, MA PhD Candidate,
Program of Language Reading & Culture,
University of Arizona, United States

webpage: http://traversals.wordpress.com

Research areas:
new literacies, anthropology and education, funds of knowledge research, cultural historical theory and interventionist research, new media and learning, collaborative research and teaching, spatial perspectives for expanding and mobilizing learning practices / alternative spaces for learning, critical literacy and social justice, identity and learning,

Biography:
Currently I am a PhD candidate in the program of Language Reading and Culture at the University of Arizona. My work examines how new forms of social and tool-based mediation derived from the context of emerging technologies can support learning and development. My dissertation research "Forming a Collaborative Model for Appropriating Youth and Digital Practices for New Literacies Development with Latino Students" documents participatory ethnographic research with high school English teachers and students in urban southern Arizona. The study challenges deficit discourses and digital divide narratives for Latino youth by enlisting diversity in adolescent technology access, forms of participation and interests to engage literacy development across multiple discursive and spatial domains.
My dissertation research reflects the accumulation of my experience as a researcher, educator and designer of digital learning environments. I believe in multidiscursive and collaborative practice at all levels, and work closely with teachers and students in k-12 settings. Throughout my career I have worked with youth from diverse racial, working-class and immigrant backgrounds. I have also teamed with teachers from many disciplines to develop projects emphasizing biological and cultural diversity, new media, critical literacy and inquiry based learning.

Conference Papers / Presentations
• "Collaborating Across Contexts for Expansive Literacy Development: Forming a Model for Appropriating Youth and Digital Practices with Latino Students” (Upcoming, September 2011). International Society for Cultural and Activity Research (ISCAR) Congress, Rome, Italy
• "Forming a Model for Appropriating Youth and Digital Practices with Latino Students: Repositioning Identities and Literacies in New Spaces." February, 25 2011. Paper Presentation at the Ethnography in Education Research Forum, University of Pennsylvania
• "Collaboratively Appropriating Youth and Digital Practices to Reconfigure Academic Literacy Spaces with Latino Students " presentation of my dissertation research as part of Norma Gonzalez's key note talk "The Compression Of Time And Space In Transnational Fields: Affordances Of Digital And Multimodal Meaning-Making" for "Time and Space in Literacy Research: Revisiting Context" February 19 2011, National Council of Teachers of English Assembly for Research, NCTEAR, Madison, WI
• "Collaborating Across Contexts: Forming a Model for Appropriating Youth and Digital Practices with Latino Students” April, 2011. Paper presentation in panel co-organized with Silvia Nogueron, entitled, "Latinos and New Digital Technologies". American Educational Research Association (AERA) Meeting, New Orleans, LA
• “Incorporating diversity in digital technology practices: Latino high school students collaboratively re-imagining literacy learning through the use of new digital spaces and tools” November 19, 2010. Paper presentation for Anthropology and Education Panel on Latinos and New Digital Technologies co-organized with Silvia Nogueron. American Anthropological Association (AAA) Meeting, New Orleans, LA
• “Building a collaborative model for appropriating youth and digital practices for exploring identity, enacting community and developing new literacies in a borderlands high school” May 1, 2010. Video presentation, New Directions Conference, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
• “Digital publics and new discourses for borderlands high schools: Teachers collaboratively incorporating networked technologies with Latino students” December 2009. Paper presentation, American Anthropological Association (AAA) Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
• “Hybrid Spaces and Expansive Learning: Technology as Tool and Context” February 2007. Paper Presentation, Language Reading and Culture Colloquy, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ
• “Innovations in Digital Collections; Biodiversity though Multimedia” October 2005. Poster presented at National Science Digital Library Annual Meeting, Denver, Colorado
• “Building ToL Treehouses: Connecting Bioscience, Technology and Inquiry Learning” November 2004. Presentation at the National Science Digital Library Annual Meeting, Chicago, Illinois
• “The Greening of the Curriculum: are the Methods and Goals of Cuba’s Organic Agriculture Movement Taught in the Schools?” Oct., 2000. Tinker Grant Presentation, Latin American Studies, University of Arizona. Based on research on school gardens in La Habana, Cuba.

MA Research:
Master of Arts in Latin American Studies, 2003
Thesis: "The Green Scientists Project: Inquiry into a School Garden and Habitat."

Teaching, Outreach, Workshops
k12 Teaching & Research:
• Co-taught for dissertation research: cross-listed High School / Community College Writing Course Spring 2010. Currently, I continue to work with teachers in my dissertation study to support their appropriation of digital tools and youth practices for academic inquiry
• Youth Afterschool Study Groups: Digital storytelling, Fall 2008; Storyweevil Wiki Group 2009-2010
• Co-teaching for MA research, 3rd grade, science, gardens, habitats and inquiry learning
• Teacher of Multimedia Studies, grades 9-12 San Francisco, CA
• Teacher of 5th grade, science concentration, Tucson, AZ

Graduate Level Teaching:
Co-instructor, LRC Incoming Graduate Student Seminar 2009

Teaching Teachers, k12 Outreach, Digital Media Design:
• Ongoing consultation regarding new media for teachers
• Science & Technology Outreach Coordinator Tucson GEAR UP; creation of social network sites and digital video for student and teacher cohort 2007-2009
• Digital Storytelling for Teachers in Southern Arizona, June 2007
• Teacher Workshops: Presented at 6 U.S. national and regional conferences for educators between 2005 and 2007 (science and technology). "Building ToL Treehouses: Connecting Bioscience, Technology and Inquiry Learning”
• Tree of Life Web Project Learning Materials Editor/Designer and Outreach Coordinator. Developed system for k12 community and lifelong learners to contribute media about biodiversity, http://treehouses.tolweb.org