Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development and Human Development, will be among 16 inductees into the prestigious National Academy of Education this year. The Washington, D.C.-based honorific society consists of U.S. members and international associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education.
“This diverse group of scholars are being recognized for their extraordinary contributions to education research and policy,” said academy president Gloria Ladson-Billings. “These leaders are at the forefront of those helping to improve the lives of students in the United States and abroad.”
Stanton E.F. Wortham (Lee Pellegrini)
An award-winning teacher, scholar, and documentary film producer who joined Boston College in 2016 as the inaugural Donovan Dean at the Lynch School, Wortham is a linguistic anthropologist and educational ethnographer with a particular expertise in how identities develop in human interactions.
His research areas span education, anthropology, linguistics, psychology, sociology, and philosophy, and he is the author or editor of nine books and more than 80 articles and chapters that cover a range of topics including linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis, “learning identity” or how social identification and academic learning interconnect, and education in the new Latino diaspora.
“These leaders are at the forefront of those helping to improve the lives of students in the United States and abroad.”
For the last 10 years, Wortham has studied the experiences of Mexican immigrant students both in and outside of school as they adjusted to lives in communities with largely non-Latino populations. As part of that project, he was the executive producer of the award-winning 2014 documentary Adelante, which chronicles how a Mexican-immigrant and Irish-American community are revitalizing a once-struggling parish. He is currently writing a book based on his research in the small town.
Founded in 1965, the National Academy of Education strives advance high-quality education research and its use in policy formulation and practice. Wortham will be inducted into the academy when it convenes for its annual meeting in November.
–University Communications | March 2019