Janine de Novais

Assistant Professor

Dr. Janine de Novais is an assistant professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware. She is a sociologist who works at the intersection of race, culture, education, and democracy.  Dr. de Novais has extensive experience teaching about these issues, as well as qualitative research methods, across undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.

Through research and practice, de Novais introduces Brave Community, an approach to teaching about race in ways that support the development of learners’ intellectual bravery and interpersonal empathy. She also examines the culturally sustaining practices that people of color use to support their post-secondary success. Her projects also include work in critical digital pedagogy that considers the challenges of the digital age.

Between 2012 and 2014, de Novais served on the editorial board of the Harvard Educational Review. Before that, she was the Associate Director of Columbia University’s Center for the Core Curriculum. She received her doctorate from Harvard University and her bachelor’s from Columbia University.

Educational Background

• Ed.D., Culture, Communities, and Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2017
• Ed.M., Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2016
• A.B., Sociology, Columbia University, New York City, NY, 1999

Professional Experience

• Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of Delaware, 2018–present
• Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, 2017–2018
• Facilitator, Harvard Programs in Professional Education, Harvard University, 2017 & 2018
• Doctoral Fellow, Teaching and Learning Lab, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, 2015–2016
• Associate Director, Center for the Core Curriculum, Columbia University, 1997–2010

Recent Professional Awards

• Fellow, University of Delaware Partnership for Public Education, 2020
• “Promising Minority Scholars,” American Educational Research Association (AERA), 2016
• NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship Semi-Finalist, National Academy of Education and the Spencer Foundation, 2016