Maribel Santiago
Assistant Professor of Education
Research Areas
Teaching & Learning of Latinx History
Teaching of Race/Ethnicity
Social Studies Education
Scholar Snapshot
Professor Santiago’s research focuses on preparing educators to teach about race and ethnicity in history classrooms, especially about Latinx complexities. Through this scholarship, she interrogates the contradictions within Latinx communities, such as inter-ethnic tensions and the continued privileging of lighter-skinned Latinxs, and challenges assumptions that approach race and ethnicity as binary and that all people of color experience race in the same way.
She received a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct the first comparative study exploring the teaching of the differing experiences of Latinx peoples in K-12 social studies classrooms. Professor Santiago also leads the History TALLER (Teaching And Learning of Language, Ethnicity, and Race) research group.
Her recent publications include “Using Historical Inquiry to Challenge the Narrative of Racial Progress” in Cognition and Instruction (recipient of the 2019 National Council for the Social Studies Exemplary Research Award), “Güeras, Indigenas y Negros: A framework for teaching Mexican American racial/ethnic histories” in History and Social Studies Education in a Context of Intolerance and “Erasing differences for the sake of inclusion: How Mexican/Mexican American students construct historical narratives” in Theory & Research in Social Education.
Her dissertation “Reconceptualizing the Teaching of Mexican American Contributions in U.S. History: A Case Study on Mendez v. Westminster” won the 2016 Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation Award from the National Council for the Social Studies.
In Depth
Listen to Professor Santiago discuss the importance of teaching Mexican-American histories on the “Visions of Education” podcast.
https://education.uw.edu/santiago-histories