Carlos Casanova

Carlos is a third-year doctoral candidate and instructor in the Social and Cultural Studies program in the School of Education at Iowa State University. He is first generation college graduate with the drive to engage with Latinx youth and pre-service teachers in what he calls transformative experiences. Transformative experiences are social interactions which involve a collective partnership initiated through an exchange of individual and/or collective experiences, problem posing questions, a critique of social problems, and action. Such experiences are guided by two interconnected components; interpersonal validation and learning connected knowledge. These two components foster Latinx youth and preserve teacher’s development of a new frame, a new way of organizing society, a new way of living, and a new language. Carlos received his B.S. in Family Studies and Sociology from Western Michigan University, and his M.S. in Sociology from The University of Texas at San Antonio. Carlos has worked with Latinx youth in community based non-profit organizations in Michigan, Texas, and Iowa for over ten years. He plans to pursue a career as tenure-track professor with a teaching and research focus on Sociology of Education, Latinx youth, Qualitative Research Methods, Community Based Organizations, and Social Justice Education.