Jessica McCrory Calarco

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Jessica Calarco is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research uses qualitative and mixed methods to reveal the power of privilege in families and schools and the myths that justify that power.

Calarco is the recipient of numerous early career, teaching, and publication awards. Her first book, “Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in School,” received the Pierre Bourdieu Award for best book in the Sociology of Education. Her most recent book, “Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research,” won the Outstanding Publication Award for best book in Methodology. Calarco is also the author of “A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum,” and her fourth book, “Holding It Together: How Women Became America’s Social Safety Net,” will be published in 2024 with Penguin Random House.

As an active public scholar, Calarco not only publishes her work in prestigious academic journals, including the American Sociological Review, the Annual Review of Sociology, the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Social Psychology Quarterly, but has also written for high-profile media outlets, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, Inside Higher Ed, CNN, and NBC News.

Christine Künzli David and Federica Valsangiacomo

Pädagogische Hochschule der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz

Prof. Dr. Christine Künzli David trained as a primary school teacher and later studied education, psychology, and general ecology at the University of Bern. From 1997 to 2007, she worked as a research assistant at the “Interfakultären Koordinationsstelle für Allgemeine Ökologie (IKAÖ)” at the University of Bern. From 1998 to 2004, she worked as a lecturer at various teacher training institutes. From 2004 to 2007, she co-managed the research sector “Education and Sustainable Development” at the institute preceding PH FHNW, and in 2008, she took over the chair of “Bildungstheorien und interdisziplinerer Unterricht” at PH FHNW. As the chair director, she worked for several years on the topic of interdisciplinary teaching and, along with her team, developed the concept of cross-curricular teaching. Her research focuses on education in the context of sustainable development and teaching in the first cycle (Zyklus 1). Since 2021, she has been directing the “Kindergarten-/Unterstufe (IKU)” Institute at PH FHNW, which has identified cross-curricular teaching as a specific focus of the institute.

Federica Valsangiacomo (M.Sc.) studied educational sciences with a specialization in educational psychology and early childhood education and counseling at the University of Fribourg (CH). For over 10 years, she has been teaching and conducting research at the PH FHNW. Her primary focus is on education in the context of sustainable development and on inter- and transdisciplinarity, particularly issues related to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education and the design of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary processes. She personally oversaw the development of the concept of cross-curricular teaching. Since 2021, she has taken on the interim direction of the chair “Bildungstheorien und interdisziplinärer Unterricht” and the “BNE-LAB” (ESS-LAB) at the institute. In her doctoral thesis, which is nearing completion, she analyzes decision-making processes in the context of sustainable development.