Research Team
Eve L. Ewing, Director
Eve L. Ewing is an Assistant Professor in the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. As a qualitative sociologist of education, Professor Ewing's scholarship, community work, and classroom teaching are aimed at expanding the ways that urban school stakeholders, other researchers, and the broader public can be equipped to understand, respond to, and ultimately dismantle white supremacy, and to make school systems liberatory institutions rather than oppressive ones. Professor Ewing's book Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. She also writes in other genres for broad audiences; she is author of the poetry collections Electric Arches and 1919 and writes the Ironheart series for Marvel Comics.
Samhitha Krishnan, Project Manager
Samhitha Krishnan received an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Chicago, where her research focused on burnout and relational care frameworks for organizers of color involved in racial justice work. Samhitha’s interest in education inequity stems professionally from her experiences as an college-access academic coach for low-income students of color and personally from her lived experience as a first generation American college student.
Current Lab Members
Jo Blankson, Research Associate
Jo Blankson is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. They spent their first summer of college facilitating sexual assault prevention workshops with The Blue Bench, a Colorado nonprofit. Jo is driven by a commitment to radical imagination, envisioning a world without gendered violence and the oppressive constructs that reify it. They find a special solidarity with queer and black young people, and considers this vital to their work. Outside of the lab, Jo mentors high schoolers in Peer Health Exchange, organizes with #CareNotCops, and tells jokes in improv and stand up comedy.
Micah Clark Moody, Research Associate
Micah Clark Moody is a third year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. Through the Neighborhood Schools Program, she spent two years as an assistant in a 5th grade classroom. During the summer, she worked at an eviction court as a Legal Aid intern. Through these experiences, she has become interested in how systems function, particularly for racially, economically, and otherwise marginalized groups, with a focus on trusting people’s lived experiences. In her free time, Micah runs on the lakeshore, reads, volunteers at a community meal, and perpetually makes coffee.
Bridgette Davis, Doctoral Student
Bridgette Davis is currently a PhD Candidate and Institute of Educational Sciences Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Teaching both middle and high school in Atlanta and Chicago, Davis's professional experiences inform her research. Her interests include transitions to adulthood, the role of nonprofit actors in higher education, and policy advocacy in the education sector.
Karlyn Gehring, Research Associate
Karlyn is a researcher and social work practitioner interested in school climate, conflict transformation and how school contexts socialize children. She graduated with a masters degree in social work from the University of Chicago in 2021, where she also engaged with research focused on child care providers. As a Chicago Public Schools alumna, Karlyn particularly loves working with Chicago's youth and draws inspiration from students’ creativity.
Karlyn Gorski, Doctoral Student
Karlyn is an Institute of Education Sciences predoctoral fellow and doctoral student in the Department of Sociology. She holds a BA in Public Policy and an MA in Sociology from UChicago. Her research focuses on how adolescents experience the social and academic environments of high schools. She is currently working on her dissertation, an ethnographic study of two public high schools in the south suburbs of Chicago.
Maggie Rivera, Research Associate
Maggie Rivera is a second-year undergraduate at the University of Chicago. As a former CPS student and current employee of the CPS School Supports Team, she is interested in working in both research and administrative spaces to promote equity for all CPS students and families. Maggie’s undergraduate projects have included spatial data and narrative-driven explorations of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on CPS enrollment rates and classroom environments, and she hopes to continue this kind of work throughout her undergraduate years and beyond. In her free time, Maggie also enjoys reading, writing short stories, and spending time with her younger sister.
Sireen Irsheid, Doctoral Student
Sireen is a licensed clinical social worker, PhD student at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation- Health Policy Research Scholar. Her research interests focus on the complex intersection between race, education, mental health, and structural racism. Sireen’s extensive clinical practice experience working as a school social worker with students impacted by legacies of colonialism and structural racism has reinforced her commitment to challenge prevailing systemic mechanisms of inequity for young people of color.
Sanya Khatri, Research Associate
Sanya Khatri is a fourth year undergraduate student at the University of Chicago. She is currently conducting research on the implementation of restorative justice in CPS and beyond in order to combat the school to prison nexus. She has been a classroom assistant and taught pre-shoolers and second graders part time through Neighborhood Schools Program. As a CPS alum, her goal is to be a teacher after graduation in CPS and create a nurturing inclusive classroom environment.
Monica Moore, Doctoral Student
Monica is a doctoral student and a Committee on Education fellow at the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. Through her research, she wants to explore the experiences of Black adolescents in community-based education spaces to better understand how these spaces work to interrupt and perpetuate systemic inequality. In her free time, Monica loves to dance, play acoustic guitar, and is currently searching for the perfect cup of coffee.
Samantha Guz, Doctoral Student
Samantha Guz is a doctoral student and licensed social worker in Chicago, Illinois. Samantha’s research is informed by her ongoing experiences as a practicing social worker. She is currently interested in the political, institutional and organizational factors that affect students' school experiences and outcomes.
Former BSL Associates
Caleb Herod, Research Associate
Caleb Herod is a program manager for Community Impact for The Chicago Community Trust where he manages strategic efforts as part of the Growing Household Wealth team. This includes efforts to support educational attainment, workforce development, and building inclusive business practices in the region. A native of Abbeville, MS, Caleb graduated from the University of Mississippi in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy with a minor in Mathematics. Caleb joined the 2012 Teach for America Mississippi Corps where he taught Algebra II and Geometry for two years at West Tallahatchie High School in Webb, MS. He then spent over 4 years with the Delta Health Alliance as Project Manager for Extended Learning Initiatives, the Art of Living Smart, and the College Promise Initiative. Caleb holds a Master's in Public Policy from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy (2020) with a concentration in municipal finance and policy analysis.
Leah Castleberry, Research Associate
Leah Castleberry received her Master of Public Policy degree in 2020 from the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. Her research explores the ways in which the intersections of business, policy and innovative technologies can be used to create a more equitable future for marginalized communities. Prior to graduate school, Leah worked as a Senior Cognitive Consultant at IBM Global Business Services. A native of Chicago’s South Side, she graduated from Howard University’s School of Business with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in International Business in 2015.
Miranda Zhang, Research Associate
Miranda Zhang is an undergraduate studying Public Policy at the University of Chicago. A newcomer to Chicago, Miranda's interest in urban policy, educational inequity, and politics led to her inquiry into the muddy history of Chicago schools. She is currently working on a thesis about Twitter narratives on COVID-19 and hopes to further explore the use of narratives in advocacy.
Brianna Lawrence, Research Associate
Brianna Lawrence is a native of Chicago’s South Side. After receiving a Master's of Art degree from the University of Chicago - School of Social Service Administration in 2016, Brianna became the Manager of Development at OneGoal. Brianna also serves as the Executive Director for the Coalition on Urban Girls – Chicago. Brianna believes it is her purpose to be a part of the policy change process, re-channeling resources and building bridges for underserved youth, especially girls of color, to reach their maximum potential beyond the limited possibilities presented by their environments.
Anmin Hui, Research Associate
Anmin Hui is a researcher, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur. Her research interest include education, social inequality, race, and identity formation. In particular, she plans to utilize Critical Race Theory to address the following research questions, (a) How is the issue of race and racism presented verbally and non-verbally in an integrated school? (b) How does an integrated school influence children’s social-emotional learning and their identity formation? Ultimately, she hopes to better illuminate how children from different racial backgrounds grapple with systemic racial injustice in and outside of the classroom. Anmin holds an A.M. from the University of Chicago and looks to matriculate into a Ph.D. program Fall 2022.