Amanda Morales, assistant professor of multicultural and multilingual education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, has received the 2020 Latina/o/x Research Issues Special Interest Group Early Career Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association.
The Early Career Scholar Award recognizes those who have conducted outstanding research on Latina/o/x issues in education 10 or less years after receiving their doctoral degree. Morales is the eighth recipient of the award, which was established in 2013.
Morales has been an active member of the association and the Latina/o/x Research Issues Special Interest Group since before earning her doctoral degree in 2011.
“I was profoundly honored to know that educational leaders from across the country had read my work and chose to highlight my research contributions in this way,” Morales said. “I want to thank the association, as well as my nominators Ted Hamann, Socorro Herrera, Maria Ledesma and Pedro Nava, for their ongoing, thoughtful support and mentorship.”
Hamann, professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, nominated Morales after working with her both as a student and a colleague.
“It has been a professional joy to watch [Morales] go from being a warm, articulate and thoughtful graduate student to an exemplary scholar and educator,” Hamann said in his recommendation letter.
Morales began working at Nebraska in 2016. Her research examines issues of equity and access for minoritized students across the PK-16 education continuum. It also focuses on teacher diversification pathways and teacher preparation for working with (im)migrant, multilingual and minoritized students, as well as the experiences of teachers of color in predominantly white educational institutions.
Among other professional recognitions Morales has received, she was named a Faculty Fellow of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education in 2019 and received the Research on Teacher Diversification Award from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education in 2018. She was also named a Great Plains Fellow by the Nebraska Center for Great Plains Studies in 2017. Additionally, Morales is the author of 22 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Morales earned her doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from Kansas State University and her master’s degree in education foundations from Texas Christian University.
