Faculty Directory
Ankhi Thakurta
Assistant Professor
Ankhi Thakurta
Ph.D., Ed.M.
Contact
Campion 115
Email: thakurta@bc.edu
ORCID
Education
- Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
- Ed.M., Harvard University
- M.A., Brooklyn College
- B.A., Swarthmore College
Courses
Secondary Curriculum and Instruction
Globalization, Mobility, and Education
Research Interests
Urban Migration;聽Civic Learning and identity formation;聽Community-Based Research;聽Arts-Based Research;聽Practitioner Inquiry;聽Teaching for Social Justice
Expertise
- Curriculum & Instruction
- Language Learning & Literacy
- Urban Education
Department
Profile
Ankhi G. Thakurta is a literacy scholar, community-based educator, and former middle school English Language Arts teacher. Her research, which sits at the intersection of migration studies, critical literacy studies, and community-based practitioner studies, foregrounds the civic lives and learning of immigrant, migrant, and refugee urban youth.聽Besides exploring how these young people use everyday literacy practices (e.g., reading, writing, speaking, art-making) to explore and inhabit democratic life, she also investigates how and to what extent critical literacy education 鈥� whether it is implemented in community or school-based settings 鈥� can foster their sociopolitical belonging.聽Ankhi鈥檚 work centralizes the literate, epistemic, and civic resources of urban immigrant, migrant, and refugee youth.
As a visual artist, Ankhi also examines how art-infused methods of knowledge production can be leveraged to conduct anti-racist, equity-oriented education research alongside historically marginalized communities. Her commitments to engaging in justice-oriented scholarship and praxis are shaped by her identities as a bilingual immigrant Indian American woman, as a descendant of refugees, and as a former learner and educator in the U.S. public school system.
Ankhi鈥檚 work has been published in several academic journals including Reading Research Quarterly, Equity & Excellence in Education, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Departures in Critical Qualitative Research. In 2024, she received the Janet Emig Award for her English Education article on building solidarity with Asian American girls in English education spaces. 聽
Publications
Thakurta, A. G. (2025). 鈥淲hat keeps me standing鈥�: Asian American girls theorize and inhabit public life through multiple literacies. Equity & Excellence in Education, 58(2), 92-106. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2025.2452576.
Thakurta, A. G. (2025). Civic place literacies: Tracing urban migrant girls' democratic meaning鈥恗aking through virtual transnational practitioner research. Reading Research Quarterly, 60(1), e579. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.579.
Thakurta, A., Msurshima, N. M., & Blake, A. R. (2025). Inquiring into belonging: a practitioner study of South Asian international students鈥� experiences in US higher education. Journal for Multicultural Education. https://doi.org/10.1108/JME-07-2024-0084.
Thakurta, A. G. (2024). Reading and (re) writing democracy: Asian American girls claim civic space through literary inquiry. English Teaching: Practice & Critique, 23(3), 352-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/ETPC-09-2023-0124.
Player, G. D., & Thakurta, A. G. (2024). Globally marginalized people shifting temporalities through arts-based methodologies in educational research. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 13(4), 58-90. https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2024.13.4.58.
Thakurta, A. (2023). Solidarity-as-project: Charting democratic co-inquiries in an Asian American girl and woman-centric English Education community. English Education. 55(4): 257-278. https://doi.org/10.58680/ee202332697.聽
Campano, G., Ghiso, M.P., & Thakurta, A. (2022). Community-based partnerships: Advancing epistemic rights through improvement research. In Don Peurach, Jenn Russell, Lora Cohen-Vogel, Bill Penuel, David Eddy-Spicer, Amanda Datnow, Marisa Cannata, & Alan Daly (Eds.), The Foundational Handbook on Improvement-Focused Educational Research: Toward a New Field of Practice-Based/Practice-Focused Innovation and Improvement.聽
Thakurta, A. (2021). The door was always there: Transnational youth leverage their multiliteracies for civic justice. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy. 64(6): 645-656. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.1148.
Thakurta, A., Kannan, C., Moon, J., & Ghiso, M.P. (2021). A seat at the table: Preparing youth to shape institutional change at an NCTE roundtable presentation. Voices From the Middle. 28(4): 69-74. https://doi.org/10.58680/vm202131281.
Thakurta, A., Wan, C., & Campano, G. (2024). Towards a border transgressing pedagogy: Disrupting oppressive ecologies of control, surveillance, and displacement in schools and beyond. (Eds). Paul Downes, Guofang Li, Lore Van Praag, and Stephen Lamb. Routledge Handbook on Promoting Equity in Education through Inclusive Systems and Societies.
Honors & Awards
2024: The Janet Emig Award for Best Paper, English Education
2023: The Ralph C. Preston Award For Scholarship and Teaching Contributing to Social Justice and Educational Equity (Penn GSE)
2022: AERA Writing and Literacies Special Interest Group (SIG) Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award, Honorary Mention聽
2022: Graduate Student Award For Ethical Innovations in Research ($1,200)
2021: English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE) Graduate Student Research Award ($2,500)
2020: Literacy Research Association Area 8 Chair Award (shared)
2020: University of Pennsylvania Office of the Provost Campaign for Community Award, 鈥淓xploring Racial Justice Alongside Communities of Color During COVID-19鈥� ($1,000, shared)
2012: Phi Beta Kappa, Swarthmore College
2012: Mark of Excellence Award in Journalism (shared)
Grants & Fellowships
2025-2028: 鈥淩eclaiming Buried Histories: Exploring The Impact of Culturally Sustaining Social Studies Pedagogy on Vietnamese American Youths鈥� Historical Learning and Advocacy.鈥� Collaborative Fellows Program, 艾可直播 College ($120,000) (PI, with Co-PI Alisha Nguyen).
2024-2026: Cultivating New Voices (CNV) Among Scholars of Color Fellowship, National Council of Teachers of English
2024-2025: 鈥淪TOREY: A Digital Storytelling Intervention for Anti-Racist Advocacy and Racial Literacy Development among Asian American Emerging Adults.鈥� Research Across Departments Grant (RADs), 艾可直播 College. ($49,933) (Co-PI with PI Brian Keum)
2023-2024: Learning from Human Mistakes: Wars, Conflicts, and Genocide. Lesley University Internal Grant ($5,000) (Co-PI, with PI Alisha Nguyen)
2023-2024: 鈥淣avigating The Democratic Disjuncture: An Educational Inquiry into the Civic Identity Development and Empowerment of Asian American Youth.鈥� Research Incentive Grant, 艾可直播 College ($14,890) (For the Greater 艾可直播 Asian American Youth Civic Collective)
2022-2023: National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship ($27,500)聽
2018-2020: Dean鈥檚 Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania (4 years of funding)
2015-2018: New York City Teaching Fellowship聽
2012-2014: Global Academic Fellowship, New York University Abu Dhabi ($25,000 per year)
2012: The Martha E. Tyson Fellowship for graduate study, awarded by Swarthmore College ($5,000)