Cati de los Rios University of California, Berkeley
The recipient of the 2026 Early Career Award is Prof. Cati de los Ríos. As a leading scholar of language, literacy and bilingual youth literacies, de los Ríos has built a ground-breaking, innovative program of empirical research on the cognitive, linguistic, and sociocultural consequences of Latinx youths’ translingual practices. Her theoretically rich work is distinguished by its careful methods and interdisciplinary character. Her award-winning scholarship pushes on the edges of translanguaging scholarship, as she examines how youth leverage cultural practices across a range of systems, i.e., language and literacy, civic, sociocultural, and schooling. Prof. de los Ríos has served on consensus committees of the National Academy of Education and is a prolific scholar whose publications appear in top journals across disciplines.
The Early Career Award recognizes a scholar in the early stages of their career no later than 10 years after receipt of the doctoral degree. The winner of the award will be invited to give the Early Career Award Lecture at the following Annual Meeting.
2025 - Raquel Muñiz 2024 - Travis Jackson Bristol 2023 - Dominique Baker 2022 - Nelson Flores 2021 - Huriya Jabbar 2020 - Lindsay Page 2019 - Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez 2018 - Julie R. Posselt 2017 - Morgan Polikoff 2016 - Christopher Emdin 2015 - Brendesha M. Tynes 2014 - Sara Goldrick-Rab 2014 - Mary Helen Immordino-Yang 2013 - Michael N. Bastedo 2012 - Maisha T. Winn 2011 - Cynthia E. Coburn 2010 - Guofang Li 2009 - Michele Moses & Nell K. Duke 2008 - Andrew J. Martin 2007 - Jaekyung Lee 2006 - Kevin G. Welner 2005 - Amanda Datnow 2004 - Geoffrey D. Borman & Janette K. Klingner 2003 - Yong Zhao 2002 - No award presented 2001 - Stanton E.F. Wortham 2000 - Amy Stuart Wells 1999 - Peter Smagorinsky 1998 - Vanessa Siddle-Walker 1997 - Deborah Loewenberg Ball 1996 - Leona Schauble 1995 - Janet Wilde Astington 1994 - Lisa Delpit & Stephen W. Raudenbush 1993 - D. Jean Clandinin 1992 - Judith D. Singer & John B. Willett 1991 - Edward H. Haertel, Magdalene Lampert, Annemarie Palincsar 1990 - Jeannie Oakes 1989 - Kenneth Tobin 1988 - Robert Mislevy 1987 - Noreen M. Webb 1986 - Penelope L. Peterson 1985 - Robert E. Slavin 1984 - Harris M.
The nomination deadline for the 2026 AERA Awards has now passed. Award winners will be announced in early 2026 prior to the AERA Annual Meeting.