Alex J. Armonda, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Curriculum & Instruction. He completed his doctorate in the Cultural Studies in Education program at the University of Texas at Austin in June, 2022. A former 8th grade language arts teacher from Chicago, Illinois, Alex teaches undergraduate courses on the social foundations of education, restorative justice practices, and elementary teaching practices. Alex also serves as a Cohort Coordinator in the elementary teaching program. Alex received his Master's in Teaching from Dominican University in 2017 and his B.A. in English from the University of Iowa in 2013.
Alex's research examines the Freirean tradition of critical pedagogical thought through psychoanalytic, decolonial, feminist, and poststructural lenses. His dissertation project, "In Freire more than Freire: Towards a new psychoanalytic foundation for critical pedagogy," combines philosophical and qualitative analysis in an effort to reframe Freire's problem-posing model as a trauma-informed method, one that links critical social inquiry to the exploration of unconscious knowledge. Alex's dissertation work received the 2021 Taylor & Francis Past Presidents' Award for Outstanding Graduate Research from the American Educational Studies Association.
Alex's research has appeared in notable outlets, including Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, Educational Philosophy and Theory, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies, and The Routledge Handbook to Critical Approaches to Politics and Policy of Education.
Critical pedagogy; critical theory; psychoanalytic theory; critical studies of race and coloniality; neoliberal reform
Noah De Lissovoy (Supervisor)
Examines effects of race, class and capital in schools and society; investigates and extends traditions of critical pedagogy and philosophy.
Instructor, ALD 327: Sociocultural Influences on Learning, The University of Texas at Austin(2018)
Undergraduate Field Supervisor, Elementary Education Program, The University of Texas at Austin(2017)
Teach for America Chicago/Northwest Indiana, Corps Member Leadership Committee, (2015 - 2017)
De Lissovoy, N., Armonda, A.J.. & Martinez, A. (2022). Democracy after Domination: Imagining critical education beyond capitalist futures. The Routledge Handbook to Critical Approaches to Policy and Politics of Education. doi:https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003145356.
Armonda, A.J.. (2022). Freire and Lacan: Critical pedagogy as a radical methodology of the subject. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 44(2), 121–146. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2021.2007206.
De Lissovoy, N. & Armonda, A.J. (2020). Critical pedagogy beyond the multitude: Decolonizing Hardt and Negri. Educational Philosophy and Theory. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1803835.
De Lissovoy, N. & Armonda, A.J. (2020). Curriculum for liberation in the neoliberal era. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. doi:https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1086.
Armonda, A.J. (2019). Advancing an (im)possible alternative: Ethnic studies in neoliberal times. Texas Education Review, 7(2), 30–44. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.26153/tsw/2283.
Taylor & Francis Past Presidents' Award for Outstanding Graduate Research, American Educational Studies Association (2021)
Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Graduate Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin (2021 - 2022)
New Texas Scholars Fellowship Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2017 - 2021)
Provost's Fellowship Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2017 - 2021)
Segal Americorps Education Award, Corporation for National & Community Service (2016 - 2017)
PSST... The Exit is This Way: A Qualitative Case Study of Pre-service Social Studies Teacher Encounters in a Third-Space Teacher Preparation Program, American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA (Cancelled) (2020)
In Freire more than Freire Himself: Towards a New Psychoanalytic Foundation for Critical Pedagogy, The Curriculum and Pedagogy Group, McAllen, TX (2020)
Freire with Zizek: Critical Pedagogy, Psychoanalysis, and the Question of the Subject, The Curriculum and Pedagogy Group, McAllen, TX (2020)
Critical Pedagogy Beyond Multitude: Decolonizing Hardt and Negri, American Educational Studies Association, San Antonio, TX (Cancelled) (2020)
Ethnic Studies in Neoliberal Times, The Curriculum and Pedagogy Group, McAllen, TX (2019)
Beyond Subversion: Curriculum for Liberation in the Neoliberal Era, American Educational Studies Association, Baltimore, MD (2019)
Myths in the Making of a Champion: Neoliberal Fantasy and the Technologies of the Transformative Teacher, The Graduate Association for Comparative Literature Students, Austin, Texas (2018)
At the Threshold of Becoming: From Pedagogy of the Oppressed to a Pedagogy of Desire, American Educational Studies Association, Greenville, SC (2018)
