Directors

Director: Dr. Robert A. Rhoads

Dr. Robert A. Rhoads is a professor of Higher Education and Organizational Change at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for Chinese Studies, the Latin American Center, and the Paulo Freire Institute at UCLA.  His research interests focus on the role of universities in advancing democracy, social justice, and peace at a global level.  Professor Rhoads received his Ph.D. in Higher Education from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) in 1994 and holds masters degrees in sociology and education psychology from PSU and Slippery Rock University respectively.  Some of his published books include The University, State, and Market: The Political Economy of Globalization in the Americas (Stanford University Press, 2006), Freedom’s Web: Student Activism in an Age of Cultural Diversity (Johns Hopkins University, 1998), Community Service and Higher Learning: Explorations of the Caring Self (SUNY Press, 1997), and Democracy, Multiculturalism, and the Community College (Garland, 1996). 

Associate Director: Christopher S. Collins

Christopher S. Collins is a student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change program at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA.  His research interests include the role of international policies in shaping higher education, specifically as it affects developing countries.  He earned a B.A. in Sociology from Pepperdine University and an M.A. in Ministry at Oklahoma Christian University.  Before coming to UCLA, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific.  There he developed the desire to study the function of education in developing countries.  His recent writings include “The Social Construction of Academic Capitalism,” “Globalization, GATS, and the New Imperialism,” and “Higher Education and Intellectual Property: A Policy Report.”

Affiliate Researchers

Affiliate Researcher: Amy Liu

Amy Liu is a doctoral student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change program at UCLA. Her research interests include sociology of higher education, changes to university culture in a global knowledge & consumer society, and international comparative research on universities and their role in reproducing social inequality and social stratification. Her recent writings include “The Myth of Meritocracy and its Implication for Higher Education” and “State of the University: Presidential Perspectives and Twenty-First Century Institutional Mission.”

Affiliate Researcher: Jenee Slocum

Jenee Slocum is a third year doctoral student in the Higher Education and Organizational Change program in the Graduate School or Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Jenee is currently studying university access and Brazilian university students, following the implementation of affirmative action policies since 2003. Much of Jenee’s previous research has focused on university access issues in the United States as well as globalization and the university. Her research interests include: Social movements and the university; Implications of globalization on university economic structuring, research, and perceptions of university purpose; University access and equity issues; Higher education in Latin America; as well as International comparative research on educational access and equity issues.