A lot goes into the selection for a prestigious fellows program, including a peer-nomination process, a selection committee and a governing board’s approval — and Aída Hurtado, who was recently named an American Education Research Association (AERA) fellow, doesn’t take that for granted.
“I was honored to be selected as an AERA fellow because I know the process by which the selection takes place, and it’s arduous,” said Hurtado, Luis Leal Endowed Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UC Santa Barbara. “Your colleagues have to rally around you, so the fact that people did that for me was meaningful.”
Hurtado is among 24 individuals named to the 2023 AERA Fellows Program which honors scholars for their exceptional contributions to education research. Her work has focused on intersectional feminisms, particularly the effects of gender on educational success. In a novel way, she has looked at educational achievement with a focus on Latinas and Chicanas, ultimately disproving the idea that traditional Latino families just want their children to get married and have more children.