2024-2025 Visiting scholars
Each of our departments has its own policies and procedures for working with international scholars. If you're interested in being a visiting scholar, please contact the department directly.
Dr. Ayça Kartal is a postdoctoral researcher at the STEM Education Center, University of Minnesota, working under the supervision of Prof. Gillian Roehrig, and also serves as an associate professor at Muş Alparslan University, Türkiye, specializing in elementary education. She earned her Ph.D. in education from Ondokuz Mayıs University, Türkiye. Her research focuses on social studies education, STEM integration, disaster education, and the use of creative drama and arts-based approaches in early childhood and teacher training. She has published in international journals, contributed to interdisciplinary book projects, and led or participated in many projects funded by TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye). Her current interests include mythology, biomimicry and the use of artificial intelligence in disaster education, reflecting her commitment to interdisciplinary innovation. Beyond academia, she is a professional theatre artist with KUKA Sahne -a local theatre operating in Muş, Türkiye- where she was named “Hayalî/Hayalbaz” (i.e. a puppeteer performing Karagöz-traditional Turkish shadow play) by Assoc. Prof. Erdinç Öcal, her master, an intangible cultural heritage bearer in traditional Turkish theatre. She created her original shadow play (aka, Karagöz) and performed in traditional, and children’s plays, and full-length stage productions.
Jihye Chung is a visiting scholar in the Comparative and International Development Education(CIDE) program of Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development(OLPD), working with Professor Joan DeJaeghere. She has completed her doctoral coursework in Global Education Cooperation (GEC) at Seoul National University in South Korea and is currently writing her dissertation. Her research interests focus on international educational development cooperation and the reduction of social inequalities.
She has extensive experience in the design, monitoring, and evaluation of international development cooperation projects in Africa and Asia through her work with international organizations, and she has also served as a policy advisor to relevant government ministries and agencies in Korea.
Her current research examines how women who were living in extreme poverty experience and navigate their participation in an integrated poverty alleviation program. Using Amartya Sen’s capability approach as a framework, she aims to uncover both the patterns of change and the mechanisms through which these transformations occur.
Thomas Mtonga is a doctor of Philosophy in special and Inclusive education from the University of Zambia. He works with the University of Zambia as a part-time lecturer and UNICEF as a National Disability Officer. He is a visiting Fulbright post-doctoral scholar in the department of OLPD where he is working with Prof. Christopher Johnstone. With Prof. Christopher, we are looking at comparative leadership in the implementation of inclusive education. Therefore, his research interests include: researches in special and inclusive education, disability rights, the general education, intersectionality, disability advocacy and Sexual Reproductive Health Rights for Persons with Disabilities.
Having lost his sight at the age of ten years, he moved on with education and trained as a secondary school teacher. Because of his excellent performance during his undergraduate at the University of Zambia, the university senate employed him as a lecturer in the department of Educational Psychology, Sociology and Special Education. He therefore became the first blind man to lecture at this high institution of learning. He did his master’s degree in Special Education at the same university of Zambia. And, in 2013, he pursued a postgraduate diploma in Curriculum Design and Development sponsored by UNESCO at the Tanzanian Institute for Education. In 2014, he was sponsored by the Open Society Foundation to study Sociology of Globalization at the University of Bilgi in Turkey. Sponsored by the same Open Society Foundation, later he went to the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom to study International Human Rights Law as his second masters.
He has been involved in major consultancy work from as far back as 2003 when he worked as a disability research assistant in the baseline survey for the living conditions of persons with disabilities in Zambia conducted by the Zambia Federation of Disability Organisations (ZAFOD). Since then, he has presided over major researches including consultancies from Leonard Cheshire UK office, the Zambia National Educational Coalition (ZANEC), Zambia Open Community Schools, Open Society Initiative in Southern Africa, World bank and many others.
Because of his training in curriculum issues, He has been involved in curriculum development and review. for instance, he designed a course ‘Disability and Development’ which he lectures at Abu Dhabi New York University. Besides, he works with four other universities under the Breaking Down Barriers for persons with Disabilities. These include: Radboud University (Netherlands), Faith Baptist (Cameroon) and the University of Rwanda (Rwanda). The project involves supervising doctorate students researching on disability related matters.
Wanqi Shang is a visiting researcher working with Prof. Marek Oziewicz and Dr. Nick Kleese in the Center for Climate Literacy, part of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. She is a Ph.D. candidate in English Language and Literature at Nankai University, China, and holds a Master’s degree in the same field from Renmin University of China. Her research employs a comparative, cross-cultural approach and bridges literary studies with pedagogy to investigate how speculative fiction functions as a reflective practice, challenging the anthropocentric assumptions that underpin the climate crisis. Ultimately, she analyzes how these narratives can cultivate new cognitive practices for imagining more just and sustainable futures.
Yi Yang is a visiting professor at the ALAB for Autism Research, collaborating with Dr. M.Y. Savana Bak in the Department of Educational Psychology. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education at Lingnan Normal University, China, holding a Ph.D. in Special Education from Ewha Womans University and an M.S. in Educational Psychology from Seoul National University. Her research focuses on early intervention for children with autism and parent training programs, with emphasis on supporting parents in natural daily contexts to enhance functional skills and social adaptability in autistic children.
Dr. Yu-Ting Tseng is an Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Research Center for Education and Mind Sciences at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. She earned her Ph.D. in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota in 2017, where she developed innovative methods for assessing proprioception in children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. Her research integrates motor control, neuroscience, and developmental psychology to investigate how proprioceptive and haptic deficits contribute to motor dysfunction in individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders, with the aim of improving assessment and intervention strategies for this population. Dr. Tseng has published over 35 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, serves on the Editorial Board of Human Movement Science, and has secured multiple competitive grants from Taiwan's National Science and Technology Council.
Research Interests: Motor development; Developmental coordination disorder; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Motor control and learning; Movement neuroscience; Proprioception and haptic perception
Academic Profiles: