Kristen Luschen

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Biography
Kristen Luschen is Associate Professor of Education Studies in the School of Critical Social Inquiry. She received her B.A. and M.A. in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She received her doctorate in 2005 from the Cultural Foundations of Education Program at Syracuse University with an emphasis in Sociology of Education and Women’s Studies.

Kristen Luschen is a co-founder of the Critical Studies of Childhood, Youth, and Learning Program, an innovative cross-disciplinary program designed to foster approaches to understanding issues related to children and youth that integrate different perspectives, methodologies, and disciplines. Students and faculty are encouraged to consider questions about young people's biological, psychological, and social development alongside other important questions that emerge from recent rethinking of children's lives in cultural, historical, political, and environmental contexts in and outside of schools.

Her research and teaching explores how cultural conceptions of youth shape school culture and policy and the experiences of young people in them. She teaches courses in sociology of education, qualitative and feminist methodology, gender studies and cultural studies of education.

Education
Kristen Luschen received her B.A. (1993) and M.A. (1995) in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Luschen earned a Certificate of Advanced Study in Women's Studies (1999) and was awarded her Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education from Syracuse University in 2005.

Courses

 * Critical Pedagogy in Action
 * Youth, Sexuality and Education SS-0218
 * Girls in School: Feminisms and Educational Inequality SS-0166
 * Producing Youth Culture SS-0296
 * Contemporary Issues in Education Reform: No Child Left Behind SS-0124, a course that culminated in the creation of Hampshire College documentary The Cost of Accountability: Teaching Under the No Child Left Behind Act, screened at Hampshire College on April 5, 2007 and the AESA conference in October 2007, Cleveland Ohio.
 * Representations of Childhood and Youth SS-0129
 * The American School: Schooling in a Multicultural Society SS-0212
 * Diversity, Equity and Community

Research
Dr. Luschen is currently conducting an ethnographic research project that explores how middle school Latinas experience respect and mistreatment at a school that is working toward a school climate of "unconditional positive regard." An aspect of the study examines how adults (families, educators, etc) in students' lives help them navigate the school culture and relationships.

Projects

 * The Cost of Accountability - Documentary that highlights the experiences of educators in three small, rural elementary schools in Massachusetts. It tells a powerful story of how NCLB has shaped the teaching and relationships between educators and their students, colleagues and communities.

Community Involvement
Kristen Luschen was elected to the Shutesbury School Committee in 2008 and has served on the Amherst Regional School Committee since 2009. Dr. Luschen has been an active member of the legal services and policy subcommittee on the Regional School Committee.

Recent Scholarship

 * Luschen, Kristen. (2011). “Style”. In N.Lesko &amp; S. Talburt (eds.) Youth Studies: Keywords and Movements. New York: Routledge.
 * Luschen, Kristen (2011) “The Politics of Information: Prevention Education, Individual Choice and the Gendered Politics of Blame.” In D.Carlson &amp; D. Roseboro (eds). The Sexuality Curriculum: Youth Culture, Popular Culture, and Progressive Sexuality Education. New York: Peter Lang.
 * Luschen, Kristen &amp; Lesley Bogad. (2010) “Youth, New Media &amp; Education: An Introduction.” Educational Studies 46(5): 450-456.
 * Luschen, K. (2006). ‘Does this mean I can’t be your daughter?’: Troubling representations of white working-class teen mothers.” In S. Books (ed.), Invisible Children in American Schools. Lawrence Erlbaum: Mahwah, New Jersey.


 * Luschen, K. (2005). Empowering Prevention: Adolescent Female Sexuality, Advocacy and Schooling. (Dissertation) Syracuse University: Cultural Foundations of Education.


 * Luschen, Kristen V. &amp; Lesley Bogad. 2003. “Bodies that Matter: Transgenderism, Innocence, and the Politics of ‘Unprofessional’ Pedagogy.” Sex Education 3(2): 145-155.