Dear PhD community (Professors and PhDs!)
We are delighted to introduce a group of visiting PhD students and post-doc scholars who bring a wealth of experience and diverse research interests to our department, from US and Spain.
We hope you can join us in welcoming them and extending an invitation to connect and collaborate during their time with us. They are also an expression of our openness to a global perspective in our programme, from wich we can be just proud.
Let us introduce them to see how interesting experiences they bring to our community!
Invited by Prof. Monica Fedeli, in collaboration with the Texas State University
* Cheri Hatcher is a doctoral student from Texas State University currently in Padova on an Erasmus+ scholarship. She is here through the end of June, working with Dr. Joellen Coryell in connection with the Texas State University Italy Hub to bring 30 undergraduates to Italy for short-term study abroad. Cheri is also here in a research capacity, collaborating with Taiwo Olatunji, PhD., and Verdiana Morandi in several ways. She will present with Taiwo and another colleague from Texas State University, Norma Mercado, in Graz, Austria, at the European Society for Research on Education of Adults (ESREA) conference, May 21-23, with a round table discussion on "Migration as transformation: Empowering migrants through education and resilience to shape inclusive societies." Later, she will return to Padova to work with Taiwo, interviewing a group of internationally and professionally trained Nigerian women. She will also follow Verdiana to Apulia and other places to observe her as she collects and analyzes data for her dissertation study. Cheri is in the beginning stages of her dissertation, and her topic is internationally and professionally trained women living outside their country of origin. In the United States, the participants are Latinas who have migrated to the US with professional credentials or education but work outside their preferred career aspirations. This is a hermeneutic phenomenological study, focused on understanding how this group navigates identity creation using social and cultural wealth as tools. As a qualitative researcher, Cheri is interested in gender equity issues and, more broadly, promoting equity across marginalized populations. She is most interested in exploring topics of gendered knowledge production, social justice, and the vulnerabilities among marginalized populations centered around adult learning frameworks. Cheri is committed to collaborative research, writing, capacity building, and exploring the material and cultural infrastructures shaping our collective experiences and perceptions. She would love to connect with other UNIPD doctoral students, share what she’s working on, and learn more about their work.
* Sergio Carvajal-Leoni is an artist, media maker, and researcher interested in finding ways to make education more engaging and more connected to the media-saturated world we inhabit. For over 15 years, he has made video stories for a living, both short and long form, and occasionally teaches these skills at Texas State University, where he’s an adjunct professor helping undergraduate students explore the power of video storytelling. He is also pursuing a doctorate in Adult, Professional, and Community Education at the same university, which brought him to Padova through an Erasmus+ scholarship. Sergio is here with his partner and their two young kids, discovering this beautiful city together. He enjoys walking, contemplating life and people, writing songs, and performing them. He is also into magical realism. If you want to know more about him and how he thinks, you can watch this video.
Invited by Prof. Debora Aquario and Elisabetta Ghedin, in collaboration with the Universitat de Girona
* Oriol Gómez i Soler is a PhD student in Education at Universitat de Girona (UdG) in the line of research: Innovation and improving educational practices: organisational models, technological resources and intervention programmes. He has a double bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood and Primary Education also in UdG, and completed a Master’s degree in Educational Innovation at Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (UNIR).
Oriol's doctoral research focuses on the use of Generative AI (GenAI) in higher education, specifically on teacher’s studies and the training needs that students present. He has already completed an article that presents a Sistematic Literature Review on this topic, proposing a training framework for university students that takes into account the risks and opportunities of tools like ChatGPT, how university students use and feel about them, the educational changes that have appeared, and which should be the knowledge required to understand and use better GenAI and ChatGPT. He is currently reviewing written interviews of 80 university students of Univesitat de Girona to gain a closer perspective on their views on the usage of these tools. Oriol is also interested in everything related to innovative technologies implemented in higher studies and their impact on the teaching-learning process, on the students, and the teachers using these tools.
Invited by Prof. Juliana Raffaghelli, in collaboration with the Universitat de Barcelona
* Paula Lozano-Mulet is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Didactics and Educational Organization at the University of Barcelona and a member of the Esbrina research group (“Subjectivities, Visualities, and Contemporary Educational Environments” – 2021SGR00686). Her work focuses on educational inequality and social inclusion, approached from a gendered and intersectional perspective, particularly in relation to digital contexts.
* Pablo Neut Aguayo is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Sociology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His lines of research are related to the translation of educational inequalities in the school experience, the relationships of pedagogical authority and their relationship with violence in schools, and the development of critical perspectives for educational transformation. He has participated in multiple competitive research projects both in Chile and Spain.
We encourage you to reach out to them, learn about their work, and explore potential collaborations. Please include them in any relevant activities or discussions happening within teaching, research and study activities. Also, we are planning a "PhD Marathon", whenever possible, to listen to our colleagues relevant activities.
Welcome to all of them!