Matthew Witenstein, PhD

Matthew A Witenstein is Associate Professor in the Educational Leadership Program in the Department of Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy at University of New Mexico (UNM). He also serves as a Senior Research Fellow, School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University.

Central research dimensions of Matthew’s academic career focus on immigrants in US higher education, while his comparative/international education (CIE) research focuses on higher education quality, organization and governance issues, and international educational experiences (study abroad/study away/immersion). While Witenstein studies higher education (and sometimes PK-20+) globally, his regional focus in CIE research is South Asia, where he has collaborated with many dear friends and diverse stakeholders of colleges, universities, institutes, Ministry offices and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) over the years. He has shifted some of his research toward the roles and responsibilities of higher education organizations/stakeholders regarding sustainable development and global citizenship education. This exciting shift has led Witenstein into some fascinating projects that engage across the United Nations definition of youth (ages 15-24), studying not only formal learning spaces, yet also nonformal and informal ones. Another important strand of his research examines technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in South Asia, and globally. Additionally, he tends to ground his work in asset-based frameworks like funds of knowledge, human-centered ones like the critical theory of love, and third space frameworks, which craft opportunities to understand ruptures in the in-between/interstitial spaces where meaning-making and challenging understandings can be unearthed.

Matthew served as Secretary and Executive Board Member of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) from 2020-2023, while serving CIES in various leadership roles over the past 15 years. He has also held deep service commitments to the Association for the Study of Higher education (ASHE), including co-chairing the International Higher Education section of the Program Committee in 2020, 2023 and 2025, and serving on the ASHE Awards Committee (2021-2024). He is co-editor of the Palgrave Macmillan book series “South Asian Education Policy, Research and Practice”, Associate Editor of Comparative Education Review, and Editorial Board Member of Diaspora, Indigenous and Minority Education, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. Matthew co-authored the new Bloomsbury Publishing textbook Comparative and International Education: An Introduction and Perspectives in Education. He has been an invited speaker at higher education institutions, ministry and government agencies throughout South Africa, US, and South Asia.

Witenstein joined TEELP in the Fall of 2025 after serving many years in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Dayton. He conducted his PhD work at the Claremont Graduate University under the supervision of Susan J. Paik, where he focused his research on comparative and international higher education and immigrant higher education contexts in the US.