Garine Palandjian is an Educational Policy and Evaluation PhD Candidate at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. As a border thinker, Garine will conduct a critical ethnography using a decolonial lens for her dissertation research in Armenia to explore how borders - and memories of bordering practices and experiences - redefine education and identities. Considering Armenia’s changing geopolitical space and time, this study will examine how (re)thinking borders can help redefine education and identities in more inclusive ways, recognizing the plurality of education visions and the possible futures that they hold. Her research aims to analyze the capacity and potential of education to contribute to more peaceful relationships among different ethnic groups in Armenia, as well as to make clear the constraints of schools in fulfilling this role. Garine is a recipient of the the ASU Global Development Research Program and 2019-2020 Title VIII Research Scholar Program. From June 2019-May 2020, Garine will be conducting ethnographic fieldwork for her dissertation in Armenia.
