Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University
About
Katherine S. Cho, is an assistant professor in Student Affairs in Higher Education at Miami University, Ohio. Her research agenda centers on institutions- in their transformative potential to change for social justice and in their reality of maintaining systems of oppression and harm. Dr. Cho's work spans student activism; institutionalized racism; and retention. At Miami, she teaches Organizational Theory; Research Foundations; and Racialized Realities in Higher Education. Prior, Dr. Cho was a research analyst at the Higher Education Research Institute, Higher Education administrator, and worked for an educational nonprofit. She received a PhD and MA in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles; an MA in Sociology & Education from Columbia University, Teacher College. and a BA in Public Policy Studies from Duke University. Dr. Cho is a 2021 ICQCM Advanced Quantitative Computational scholar and 2019 NAEd/Spencer Dissertation fellow.
Current Work:
Dr. Cho's scholarly pursuits are rooted in the belief that institutional change is critically necessary to move us closer to a more just, equitable society. Through systems of schooling (specifically within colleges and universities), she explores the spectrum within organizational function and arguably, dysfunction, to examine how their mission, vision, and values are at odds with their practices, policies, and cultures. These mismaches disproportionately impact the experiences marginalized students, faculty, administrators, and staff and result in 3 strands of research: (1) how colleges and universities respond to (campus) racism and student activism; (2) how campus cultures of support and push-out marginalized students, faculty, and staff through their diversity, equity, and inclusion work; and (3) how Higher Education constructs academic socialization, navigation, and knowledge production and what the ways we can challenge its toxicity and harmful practices.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Higher Education; institutional accountability; institutional racism; organizational theory; diversity, equity, and inclusion
