Alaa Abdelghaffar

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate and Lecturer at the Engagements program at UVA, I develop and teach interdisciplinary courses as part of the General Education Curriculum for first-year students. I mentor my students to develop self, critical consciousness to understand our intersectional, existential entanglement as citizens of the world. I teach with an ethic of care, trust, and faith in my students' individual and collective capabilities to succeed and grow. I strive to make learning relevant and relatable to my students, creating a classroom environment of intellectual curiosity and bravery. As a trained scholar, I do research on how women students from the Global South experience epistemic injustice in their education, and I look into ways how higher education institutions can and should be intentional in implementing more epistemically plural frameworks in faculty training and curriculum development, to respond more efficiently to the diverse needs of their students.