Current Students

Meet Our Doctoral Students

Maya Berrol-Young (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

Maya Berrol-Young is a PhD student in the Teaching of Social Studies program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research centers on the intersections of civic education, disability studies, and student agency. Currently, she collaborates on the Civically Engaged Districts Project, providing expertise on enhancing the accessibility of civic action research and learning in K-12 educational settings. In addition, Maya is affiliated with the Center for Educational Equity, where she conducts research on the New York State Seal of Civic Readiness. She is also consults on the Decision-Making Curriculum project in collaboration with Hunter College and the New York State Developmental Disabilities Planning Council. Her professional experience includes serving as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in Thailand, a Global Writing and Speaking Fellow at NYU Shanghai, and most recently, as a special education teacher in New York Public Schools.

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Arts & Humanities

Menn Chaiyarat

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

I am a Ph.D. student and instructor in the Social Studies Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. My research focuses on democracy, education, and teacher agency, particularly within repressive social and educational contexts. Born and educated in Thailand, I bring a global perspective to enrich scholarly discussions on social studies and civic education. Previously, I taught social studies, history, and civics in secondary schools and worked as a lecturer and field supervisor for a university in Bangkok. At Teachers College, I teach the Student Teaching Seminar course and supervise social studies student teachers during their placements in NYC schools, helping them develop into reflective, culturally relevant, and critical social studies educators.

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Arts & Humanities

Judy Derosier

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

I am a PhD student in the Arts and Humanities Department, specializing in the Teaching of Social Studies Program. My research centers around the experiences of Afro-Caribbean immigrant youth concerning citizenship, identity, and belonging within a social studies classroom. Additionally, I work as a part-time instructor in the Teaching of Social Studies program, supporting preservice social studies teachers.

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Arts & Humanities First-Generation College Student Student-Parent

Eric Estes

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

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Arts & Humanities

Chenyu Li

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

Chenyu Li is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Social Studies Education program at Teachers College. As a migrant social studies educator who taught primarily migrant youths in New York City public schools, Chenyu is passionate about developing a transnational perspective in understanding citizenship, civic education, and social studies. This passion continues to influence his teaching and research. At Teachers College, Chenyu serves as the instructor of four graduate-level courses and a student teacher field supervisor. These courses prepare teachers to design and teach culturally relevant curricula that emphasize subjugated knowledge. His research focus is on Chinese migrant youths' transnational citizenship, acts of belonging, and social studies learning experiences amid the US-China geopolitical tension.

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Arts & Humanities

Dane Peters

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

Dane Peters is a 4th-year Doctoral Student. His research focuses on expeditionary teacher learning through study abroad experiences in the African Diaspora as preparation for teaching Black Studies in K-12. Dane also serves as a research assistant for the Black Education Research Center (BERC) where he is a contributing curriculum writer and Black Studies content specialist for the New York City Department of Education's first K-12 Black Studies Curriculum. His other research interest include Decoloniality, Africana Theory, Racial Literacies, Black Civics

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Arts & Humanities First-Generation College Student

Kathryn Picardo (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

Kathryn Picardo is a second year doctoral student in the Teaching of Social Studies program. Her research interests focus on the ways in which classrooms can incorporate difficult histories and controversial issues, and best practices in doing so. More specifically, she explores how an agonistic approach can be applied in educational spaces to foster democratic competencies. She is currently involved in research that explores how high school social studies teachers are discussing the Israel-Hamas war in their classrooms, and the implications of their pedagogical choices in this regard. In 2022, Kathryn served as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in Finland, where she researched the actualization of competence learning curricula on a national scale. She also teaches high school Social Studies in Livingston, NJ.

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Arts & Humanities

Shari Wejsa-Stewart (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Teaching of Social Studies

Shari Wejsa-Stewart is a PhD student in the Teaching of Social Studies program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research explores the intersections of citizenship, belonging, and racial and ethnic identity for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking immigrant-origin youth. She is a Re-Imagination Ambassador, supervises student teachers in TC’s Social Studies program, and writes social studies curriculum for the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia. She is a former public high school Spanish and social studies teacher and taught Latin American migration history and digital scholarship at Emory University. With the support of grant funding to Brazil, she conducted research on the experiences of refugees from Angola who sought refuge in the country during the decolonization of Portuguese Africa. She also received a Fulbright research grant to examine how culturally-relevant curriculum impacts educational attainment for Afro-Brazilian girls in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.

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Arts & Humanities Student-Parent

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new online profiles for Doctoral Students at Teachers College.

If you are a currently enrolled doctoral student at Teachers College, please visit the profile submission page for more information on how you can create your own profile.

Current Students