Illana Lancaster

Assistant Professor
School of Education, Teaching and Health

• Dr. Lancaster started her career in education teaching in a community junior secondary school as a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana. Dr. Lancaster is an Africanist and a critical qualitative researcher interested in issues of equity, access, and gender with a regional focus on southern Africa and a contextual focus on the urban. She employs the analytical lens of socio-spatiality and intersectionality (race, class, and gender) in her research, and integrates theories, pedagogies, and methodologies from a variety of disciplines within the social sciences and humanities including urban studies, critical geography, critical race theory, and legal studies. Dr. Lancaster's teaching interests focus on cultivating global citizens to participate in the development of a more just and equitable world. In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Lancaster works with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in partnership with the State Department’s African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) to train African peacekeepers in communication and negotiation skills.

• Degrees

  Ph.D., Education Policy and Leadership, International Education Policy (2008) University of Maryland, College Park, M.Ed., Secondary Education, English and ESL (2000) George Washington University, Washington, DC, BA in English Language & Literature and African and African American Studies, University of Virginia, Charlottesville.