Professional Biography
Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher began her graduate studies in the field of School Psychology, earning a Professional Diploma in School Psychology and a Masters in the Psychology of Bilingual Students from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education (New York). As a school psychologist resident, she worked with South-Asian heritage students at a public high school in Rockland County, New York. She further developed her interest in immigrant youth during her studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she pursued a doctorate in International Educational Development with a concentration in Curriculum and Pedagogy. At Teachers College, she served as the ethnographer for the Muslim Youth in New York City Project (funded by the Ford Foundation) and was also part of the research team for the African Muslim Immigrants Literacy Initiative (AMILI).
Ghaffar-Kucher is a coeditor of the award-winning volume Refugees, Immigrants and Education in the Global South: Lives in Motion (2013; Routledge), the winner of the 2013 Jackie Kirk Outstanding Book Award of the Comparative and International Education Society. Her work has been published in the American Education Research Journal; Harvard Educational Review; International Journal of Intercultural Relations; Race, Ethnicity & Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education; and The Urban Review. She has served on the board of directors for the Comparative and International Educational Society and the Pennsylvania Council of International Education, and was an advisory board member for MTV's Look Different Campaign.
Currently, she is an editorial board member of Contingencies: A Journal for Global Pedagogy, and an Associate Editor for Anthropology and Education Quarterly. She has developed and taught courses at Drexel University and Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to moving to the United States in 2000, she has lived in Hong Kong, Pakistan, and Germany.
Research Interests and Current Projects
Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher’s research focuses on the socialization, academic engagement, and civic commitments of migrant children and youth. Much of this research has informed her practitioner work in the areas of curriculum development and school climate issues (particularly related to bias-based bullying and structural Islamophobia). Her latest project (with Thea Abu el-Haj and colleagues) is a national study that examines the civic engagement of youth from Muslim immigrant communities in the United States and is sponsored by the Spencer Foundation.
Along with two colleagues from Teachers College, Columbia University, Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher created an anti-bullying resource pack for educators that targets the bullying of South-Asian American youth In the Face of Xenophobia: Lessons to Address Bullying of South-Asian Youth commissioned by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT). A selection of these lessons has been incorporated into California’s statewide Ethnic Studies curriculum. She was also a co-investigator for the SSRC's "Our Shared Past" grant in which she worked with scholars from several universities across the U.S. and the MENA region on a research-based curriculum project titled Rethinking the Region: New Approaches to 9-12 U.S. Curriculum on the “Modern Middle East.” More recently, she developed a curriculum to accompany South Asian American Digital Archives’ (SAADA) Revolution Remix walking tour of historic Philadelphia. She has consulted on dozens of teacher education and curriculum projects across the world through local and international organizations, USAID, and UNESCO. Currently, she is leading the Teaching Beyond September 11th curriculum project funded by Penn’s Global Engagement grant.
Dr. Ghaffar-Kucher is the co-producer and host of The Parent Scoop podcast, which brings education and knowledge to parents, from parents who are researchers and practitioners in the field of education.
Selected Publications
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Journal Editorial Boards
Anthropology and Education Quarterly
Associate Editor
Contingencies: A Journal of Global Pedagogy
Editorial Board