This year marks the sixth cohort of the iSchool's Postdoctoral Research Associate Program. The program prepares candidates for tenure-track assistant professor or other appointments inside and outside of academia. The iSchool welcomes four new postdocs in the 2026–27 academic year.
New postdocs and their research interests include:
- Kyle Chong, PhD in curriculum, instruction and teacher education, Michigan State University
Asian American studies, youth literature, sociopolitical foundations of education, education policy, critical race studies, curriculum theory, critical qualitative research methods, Asian Studies, and decolonial studies.
- Yvette Iribe Ramirez, PhD in information science, University of Washington
Digital equity and community informatics through participatory, qualitative, and rights-based approaches, with a focus on Indigenous rights, libraries, LIS education, and international community-based collaborations.
- Leigh Levinson, PhD in informatics and cognitive science, Indiana University Bloomington
Children's interactions and perceptions of emergent social technologies, such as social robots and representations of robots in children's media, such as books and movies.
- Soumita Mukherjee, PhD in informatics, Penn State University
Governance of AI systems in practice, examining how legal frameworks, regulatory language, and institutional design shape accountability; bridging law, empirical social science, and ethics to develop governance reforms that protect users and build trustworthy AI.
They join current postdocs Cesar Bernabe, Bogeum Choi, Edwin (Teddy) Roland, and Tian Wang.
Each postdoc is assigned to an iSchool faculty mentor, who provides guidance and support for their area of study. In addition to developing their research agendas, postdocs teach up to one course per semester and serve on at least one service committee in the iSchool.
Postdocs participate in workshops and training opportunities offered by the iSchool Research Services and in connection with the Doctoral ProSeminar (IS 529). Topics include applying for grants, building a scholarly profile, and crafting a professional portfolio for the job market.
