Erica Yardy

Research Discipline/Bio

Erica Clarke Yardy is a doctoral student in the Anthropology and Education program. She is also a Research Associate with the NYC Early Childhood Research Network. Her focus is on collaborative research with Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) workers to explore the experience of this work. Her projects include the use of collaborative ethnography, autoethnography, ethnographic conversations, collecting life histories, and content analysis. More recently, Erica has framed this work within a feminist ethnographic lens. She has presented her work at conferences including the American Educational Research Association Conference, the Visions of Racial Justice and Childhood Conference, the Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference, and the American Anthropological Association Conference. Prior to her research work, she was an early childhood teacher in Barbados, Illinois, and the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Educational Background

Master of Arts, Early Childhood Special Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2015
Diploma in Education (Primary), The University of the West Indies, 2011
Bachelor of Science, Psychology, The University of the West Indies, 2008

Publications/Exhibitions

Yardy, C. E., (November, 2024). Complicating The Simple: Representations of Early Care and Education Work. Presentation at The American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Tampa, FL.
Yardy, C. E.., May, A., Mohamed, S., Peters, L., Swadener, B., & Bloch, M. N. (November, 2024). Weaving Intergenerational Stories of Justice: Childhoods and Child Care in Africa and the African Diaspora. Presentation at the Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Education Conference, Chicago, IL.
Yardy, C. E.., Kirton, T., Omoyele, O., & Duke, Z. (June, 2024). Appropriate for Whom? A Critical Examination of Diverse Representation in Children’s Literacy. Presentation at Visions of Racial Justice and Childhood: Inequalities, Identities, Politics, Relationalities and Representations, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ.
Yardy, C. E., Kirton, T., Omoyele, O., & Duke, Z. (April, 2024). On Listening to What Early Childhood Teachers Say: Reflections on Collaborative Inquiry, Community, and Care. Presentation at the American Education Research Association, Philadelphia, PA.
Yardy, C. E., Pierce, P., Salazar, N., Zhang, Z. (October, 2023). Learning Through Doing: Street-Vending in the New York City Neighborhoods of East Elmhurst and Harlem. Presentation at the 4th Conference in Anthropology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY, NY.
Anderson, D., & Yardy, C. E. (2023, July 27). Case Study: Research-Practitioner-Partnerships and Early Childhood. Presentation at National Network of Education Research-Practice Partnerships Annual Forum, Houston, TX

Last Updated: Mar 14, 2025