Kris D. Gutiérrez

Kris D. Gutiérrez is the Carol Liu Professor of Education at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Education. A leading scholar in the learning sciences, literacy, and educational policy, she employs critical and cultural-historical frameworks to explore learning in designed environments, particularly for non-dominant and translingual communities. Elected to the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she has served on national advisory boards, including President Obama’s Education Policy Transition Team and the National Board for the Institute of Education Sciences.

Her research focuses on third spaces, social design-based experiments, and syncretic approaches to literacy, emphasizing the democratization of learning through co-construction with communities. She examines how hybridity, new media literacies, and STEM learning can disrupt inequitable systems. Her work is funded by the National Science Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and MacArthur Foundation.

Scientific Awards:

• AERA Division C Sylvia Scribner Award
• 2020 Dr. John J. Gumperz Memorial Award for Lifetime Scholarship
• 2016 Oscar Causey Award (Literacy Research Association)
• 2014 Henry T. Trueba Award (AERA Division G)
• Fellowships at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences and the Exploratorium Museum
• AERA Hispanic Research in Elementary/Secondary/Postsecondary Education Award

She advises the Las Redes after-school program (15 years) and co-led the Connected Learning Research Network. Her publications include co-authored works like Learning and Expanding With Activity Theory and numerous articles in premier journals such as The Journal of Learning Sciences and Educational Researcher.