Assistant professor receives qualitative research award from AERA

Maureen Flint, an assistant professor in the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s department of lifelong education, administration, and policy, will receive the Qualitative Research SIG’s Dissertation Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for contributing research that seeks to reduce inequality and injustice in schools and society.

The award—which Flint will receive in April at the AERA annual conference held in San Francisco—recognizes scholars who seek to create deeper discussion of issues in qualitative research.

“This award is a huge honor to receive. The dissertation was a project that a lot of people had a hand in making possible, from my committee to the students who took part in the study,” she said.

Flint’s dissertation, “Methodological Orientations: Exploring College Student Navigations of Race and Place in Higher Education,” explores questions of belongingness and the socio-historical context of race on campus.

“Receiving the award emphasizes the continued relevance of the questions asked through the project including: What is a university’s responsibility to grapple with their legacy of enslavement?; how do histories of racism and inequity continue to matter in our present engagements with place?; and more. These questions are ones that matter not only for the university where the study took place, but across the spectrum of education, and receiving the award emphasizes this,” Flint said.