Sharim Hannegan-Martinez receives a 2024 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship

Assistant Professor of Educational Studies Sharim Hannegan-Martinez is one of 25 researchers to receive a 2024 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. The fellowship provides funding and professional development to early-career scholars whose projects address critical issues in the history, theory, or practice of formal or informal education, at the national and international levels.

Informed by her experiences growing up on the San Diego-Tijuana frontera and her time as a high school English teacher in East Oakland, Hannegan-Martinez’s scholarly agenda seeks to expand justice-centered pedagogies to consider the role of healing and overall wellbeing as a part of liberatory praxis.

Of the research project she will pursue as a NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow, “If We Aren't Grieving, We Aren't Healing: Grief as a Trauma-Informed Praxis,” Hannegan-Martinez writes:

“The purpose of this study is to add to the growing body of trauma-informed and healing-centered scholarship by centering a component of healing from trauma that is often looked over in educational scholarship and practice: grief. Through engaging in different iterations of Chicana Feminist Pláticas (individual, peer, communal) with Teachers of Color from across different geographic regions, I seek to understand the spatial and political landscape of grief and trauma for both Teachers and Students of Color.”

Dr. Okhee Lee, Chair of the NAEd Professional Development Committee, says “The NAEd/Spencer Fellowships represent an investment in both the fellows and their ideas for shaping education research. Moreover, these fellowships can offer life-changing opportunities. My fellowship a couple of decades ago altered the course of my career and my personal life, and I am deeply grateful. It is my privilege to work with and support our fellows in the coming year.”