Project MALES Announces Spring 2019 Plática Speakers: Angela Ward, Dr. Luis Urrieta, & Dr. Sarah Brayne

Project MALES is pleased to announce our three speakers for our Spring 2019 Pláticas Series. Our monthly pláticas feature prominent local community and university leaders who facilitate small group discussions with our UT Austin undergraduate and graduate student mentors and other attendees. Angela Ward will present as our first plática speaker on Monday, February 11, 2019, on the UT campus in WAG 201 from 5 PM – 7 PM. Dr. Luis Urrieta will hold our second speaker series on March 25^th, and Dr. Sarah Brayne will host our third speaker series on April 25^th.

Angela Ward oversees the Austin Independent School District’s (AISD) focus on Cultural Proficiency & Inclusiveness and Restorative Practices. Prior to leading this effort as a district administrator, she served as a campus administrator, teacher leader, and classroom teacher. As an expert on differentiation of curriculum, she led her district in writing the first curriculum documents and continues to support culturally responsive curriculum development in Austin ISD. Angela served four years on the Learning Forward Texas (LFTX) Board of Directors, an affiliate of the international organization whose purpose is engaging adult learners in meaningful, effective professional learning. Angela is a graduate of Saint Edward’s University in Austin Texas (1995) and received her Master’s from Southwest Texas State (2002).

Dr. Luis Urrieta, Jr. is Professor of Cultural Studies in Education. He is (by courtesy) affiliated faculty in the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS), the Native American & Indigenous Studies Program (NAIS), and the Lozano Long-Benson Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS). Dr. Urrieta’s research interests center around 1) cultural and racial identities, 2) agency as social and cultural practices, 3) social movements and collective action related to education, and 4) learning in family and community contexts. He is specifically interested in Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous (P’urhépecha) cultures and identities, activism as a social practice in educational spaces, in oral and narrative traditions in qualitative research, and Indigenous knowledge systems and research methodologies. Luis Urrieta received his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003.

Dr. Sarah Brayne is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. In her research, Brayne uses qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the use of big data within the criminal justice system. In her most recent work, she analyzed the use of predictive analytics and new surveillance technologies in the Los Angeles Police Department. In previous research, she studied the relationship between individuals’ contact with the criminal justice system and their involvement in medical, financial, labor market and educational institutions. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology and Social Policy from Princeton University. Brayne has volunteer-taught college-credit sociology classes in prisons since 2012. In 2018, she founded the Texas Prison Education Initiative.

Project MALES is very excited and grateful to have these three speakers present to our mentors and community!