Dr. Alfredo J. Artiles is the Ryan C. Harris Professor of Special Education and Dean of the
Graduate College at Arizona State University (ASU). He also directs the Equity Alliance at ASU.
Artiles’ program of interdisciplinary scholarship aims to understand how disability intersections
with race, language, gender, and social class both enhance and perpetuate the stratification of
educational opportunities. This work grapples with how justice remedies for one group (e.g.,
special education) can create injustices for other groups (e.g., African Americans, English
learners). His approach has implications for definitions of learner competence in pluricultural
societies and culturally responsive research practices. Of significance, he has documented the
lack of systematic attention to race and culture in special education research. His scholarship
urges us to reformulate traditional epistemological and methodological practices in the education
field, such as research reports that ignore sample intra-group variability or disregard participants’
cultural tools and practices that could mediate their performance in study tasks. In addition, he
has brought systematic attention to the intersection of historical, spatial and cultural influences in
the production of racial disparities in special education across school districts, cities, states, and
nations. In short, his work offers support for a situated understanding of educational equity in
sites of enduring historical struggles. He has produced research findings and theoretical
refinements, created personnel preparation programs, contributed to advance equity oriented
policies, led national and international technical assistance and research projects, and promoted
the creation of inclusive educational systems.
Dr. Artiles has received numerous honors, such as the 2001 Early Career Award from AERA’s
Committee on Scholars of Color in Education, the 2012 Palmer O. Johnson Award, and the 2017
Review of Research Award. He was elected in 2008 Vice President of AERA’s Division on the
Social Contexts of Education and presented the AERA 2011 Wallace Lecture. In 2011, he was
appointed by President Obama to the White House Advisory Commission on Educational
Excellence for Hispanics. Dr. Artiles is an AERA Fellow, a former Spencer Foundation/
National Academy of Education Postdoctoral Fellow and was a Resident Fellow at Stanford
University’s Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Artiles edits the
Teachers College Press book series “Disability, Culture, and Equity,” and was co-editor of
volume 33 of the
Review of Research in Education. He has produced over 130 publications
including the 2017
World Yearbook of Education: Assessment inequalities (Routledge); the 2017
NRC report
Fostering the Development and Educational Success of Young Language Learners
and Dual Language Learners
(committee member), and Inclusive education: Examining equity
on five continents
(Harvard Education Press).