Patricia Hemans

UC San Diego
PhD Candidate
phemans@ucsd.edu

Patricia is a doctoral candidate in the department of Education Studies at UC San Diego. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Education and a master’s degree in Education at UCLA, Patricia spent ten years as a high school teacher in Los Angeles, Beijing, and then her hometown, San Diego. Her K-12 experience includes teaching multiple subjects but mainly English and ESL; being an English curriculum designer; developing a yoga program; and conducting research in New Zealand as a Fulbright Distinguished Teacher. Patricia is currently in the fourth year of her doctoral program and is also completing a specialization in Critical Gender Studies. Her collaborative and participatory research strives to understand the impact of teachers’ embodiment of critical pedagogy and contemplative practices from a decolonizing, feminist embodiment perspective, in order to challenge the logics and dismantle the structures of settler colonialism. Patricia aspires to become a professor in a teacher education program while continuing to do work across the disciplines of Ethnic Studies and/or Critical Gender Studies..