Five scholars join faculty ranks

News & Notes

Five scholars join faculty ranks

Following are brief introductions to new College of Education faculty members. For more information, click here.

Gilberto Q. Conchas

Gilberto Q. Conchas is the inaugural Wayne Hoy and Anita Woolfolk Endowed Professor in Educational Policy Studies.

At a moment when the U.S. is grappling with systemic racism and inequality, Conchas plans to use his position as an instrument for advancing the Penn State College of Education’s vision for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

Gilberto Conchas “I appreciate that the College of Education is deeply entrenched in the hard work to combat educational injustice and to promote educational excellence. I believe that the endowed professorship will allow me to contribute my unique qualifications to expand upon the college’s accomplishments and to further advance equity and social justice through research, teaching and community-engagement efforts,” he said.

Conchas’ interest in educational inequality is closely intertwined with his personal history and ethnoracial identity. “As the son of Mexican immigrant farmworkers, it is my utmost responsibility to conduct research that addresses systemic forms of racism and to find solutions to eradicate all forms of injustices. The aim of PreK-12 and higher education is to empower all students who, despite being affected by marginalization, unjust immigration policies, poverty and inadequate education policies, navigate successfully through inequality in U.S. society and culture,” he said.

Numerous peer-reviewed scholarly journals have published Conchas’ research on social inequality and education.

Conchas left the University of California Irvine as professor of educational policy and social context, and founding director of Community Engagement & Student Success. He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from UC Berkeley and both a master’s and Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan.

José Cossa

José Cossa is associate professor in adult learning in the Department of Learning and Performance Systems. Cossa is a Mozambican scholar whose research focuses on justicecentered work toward de-colonializing, debordering, de-peripherizing/de-centering the world; power dynamics in international negotiation over educational policy; and, unveiling issues inherent in the promises of

As newly named Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Francesca López wants to help make Penn State’s College of Education the place to consult for how equity work should be carried out.

López left the University of Arizona as the Ernest W. McFarland distinguished professor in leadership for Francesca López education policy and reform; founder and director of the Education Policy Center; and associate dean of the College of Education. At Penn State, she’ll succeed Richard Duschl, who retired in 2019, as the Waterbury-chaired professor.

López said that for equity work to take place, anti-racist work needs to be at the center. “I foresee my primary academic emphasis to reflect the work I have carried out that helps us understand the kind of knowledge educators need to transform educational spaces to equitable, anti-racist spaces — what I collectively refer to as assetbased pedagogy,” she said.

“My long-term goal in this position is to use it as a platform that leverages the deep expertise in the Penn State College of Education, as well as collaborators in the community. There are amazing things already happening in the college, and I am so very excited to get started by engaging in conversations with my colleagues about their vision, the needs in various contexts, and ways we can collaborate.”

López earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas; a master’s in educational psychology and special services (counseling) from the University of Texas-El Paso; and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Arizona.

modernity and cosmopolitanism.

In addition, Cossa’s current theorizing, which he coined as Cosmo-uBuntu, offers a new exterior (to modernity) theorizing and practice to engage interdisciplinary questions pertinent to humanity and the cosmos, technology and artificial intelligence, educational theory and practice in face-to-face and in online and distance education contexts.