Aria Razfar

Professor Aria Razfar is affiliated with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. His work focuses on sociocultural theories of language and learning, particularly in urban contexts.

• Education: PhD in Education (2003) from UCLA, MS in TESL (1997) from USC, BA in Linguistics & Philosophy (1995) from UCLA.

Research Interests: Aria explores the intersection of language, identity, and education through linguistic anthropological perspectives. He emphasizes social justice in marginalized communities, integrating language socialization and ideologies into urban schooling frameworks. His publications span sociocultural approaches in linguistics, multilingual mathematics education, and critical language policy analysis.

Grants: Currently leads Project ELMSA and serves as principal investigator on nationally funded grants to improve culturally relevant instruction for English Language Learners.

Professional Engagement: Active member of the American Education Research Association, American Association of Applied Linguistics, and National Council of Teachers of Education Research.