Shiv Desai, PhD

I was born on the beach and taken by the waves. I am the son of immigrants, and an English Learner who proudly reps Hudson County New Jersey. I grew up in a predominately immigrant, multilingual community that represented various Diasporic communities. What I remember most from attending my public schools is that the educators never acknowledged nor recognized the rich community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) that was ever present or the budding hip hop culture, which could be heard and seen at every corner. These educators made me feel like I was “beyond love” (Delgado, 1995) and a Nobody (Hill, 2016).

I advocate for a “dialogic”/“humanizing” methodology that strives to create an innovative approach to research that presents marginalized participants in authentic ways, preserves their way of being, demonstrates how their epistemologies and ontologies fuel their self-determination, and involves building relationships and engaging in dialogic consciousness between researchers and participants that is based on care and dignity that unapologetically challenges oppression (Denzin & Lincoln, 2008; Paris, 2011; San Pedro & Kinloch, 2017; Smith, 1999). In short, my life-long scholarly desire is to employ my research to advocate for the Nobody (Hill, 2016), and those “beyond love” (Delgado, 1995).

I am a former elementary and high school teacher who taught primarily in Watts and South-Central Los Angeles. I was also co-director of Project ASPIRE at the Ohio State University where I worked with faculty to help train student teachers to be successful in urban schools because they had a solid foundation in culturally sustaining pedagogies, anti-racist/anti-oppressive practices and socio-cultural literacies. Prior to coming to UNM, I was an assistant professor at Thomas More University. My research focused on hip hop pedagogies and spoken word. In addition, I utilized Theatre of the Oppressed (Boal, 1974) and BLM in my classes.

I came to UNM because I wanted the opportunity to conduct more research, but more importantly, be in a place where my work can make a difference. For the last four years, I have been working with the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS)-UNM Ethnic Studies Education and Health Research Practice Partnership to study how ethnic studies teachers promote healing and wellness, engage in decolonizing practices, foster ancestral knowledge, and affirm students’ identities. This research is being funded by the WT Grant Foundation and Hewlett Foundation to support a mixed-methods, cross-site study to examine whether and how ethnic studies courses mitigate academic and socio-emotional inequalities experienced by BIPOC students. My other research area focused on a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project with LOUD (Leaders Organizing 2 Unite & Decriminalize), which is comprised of allies, formerly incarcerated youth, and youth on probation. Through LOUD, we conducted focus group interviews in detention centers as well as created a survey that was completed by system-involved youth. LOUD presented our research to the local juvenile justice system as well as other national justice systems. LOUD youth even presented at national conferences. My last area of research is hip hop where I examine how it can serve as a tool for empowerment and liberation.

I strongly advocate for community engaged scholarship and service. An example is the work with the Cuba Independent School District that I did with colleagues to provide anti-racist and Indigenous education trainings for administrators, teachers and staff. At the heart of these trainings, we discuss anti-Blackness, erasure of Indigenous peoples, and xenophobia and linguicism against Native and Latin@/x youth. We also worked with students in providing an introduction to ethnic studies that emphasizes Indigenous and Xicano/a frameworks. Through this work, we illustrate how we can reimagine education and model the power of ethnic studies pedagogies that center liberation, solidarity, testimonios, and identity. As a result of this work, we have been invited to work with other school districts and community colleges throughout the state.

I have been awarded the prestigious NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship to support my work with LOUD. I was also received funding from the National Institute of Minority Health & Health Disparities (U54 MD004811-06), and The Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement (TREE) Center for Advancing Behavioral Health to support a project by examining how ethnic studies classrooms foster healing and wellness for BIPOC youth. I received the American Educational Research Association Early Career Award from Grassroots, Community Organization and Youth Activism Special Interest Group.

In conclusion, I the pandemic has taught us that “nothing could be worse than a return to normality” (Roy, 2020). Instead, it should be a reminder of the “need to fundamentally rethink education and consider the pandemic as an opportunity to restart, or more precisely re-set education” (Ladson-Billings, 2021, p. 68).