I am Assistant Professor of Elementary Education and Educational Justice in the Department of Teacher Education and core faculty in the Asian Pacific American and Muslim Studies programs at Michigan State University. I engage critical race frameworks to explore how racial and cultural experiences impact the pedagogy and curricular enactment of Asian American and Latine pre- and in-service teachers. I also study how educators teach so-called difficult histories to young learners through children's literature and primary sources. My current project, generously funded by the Spencer Foundation, examines the implementation of Asian American Studies in K-12 classrooms in California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas. I previously held tenure track positions at the University of Colorado Boulder (2021-2023) and Iowa State University (2017-2021).

I am an experienced elementary teacher who taught first, second, fourth, and fifth grades in Austin, Texas for nine years and I continue to provide professional development to pre- and in-service educators at the national, state, and local levels. As a teacher educator, I have taught early childhood and elementary social studies methods courses and courses about secondary social studies, Asian American education and bilingualism, bilingual education, and Latinx youth. At the graduate level, I have taught introduction to qualitative research, critical race theory (CRT), CRT and teachers of color, history and policy issues in teaching and teacher education, Asian Americans in education, and a special topics course about current issues in social justice elementary education. Honors include the 2017 Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation Award from the National Council for the Social Studies, the 2019 Early Career Award from the Children's Literature Assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, a 2020 Teaching Innovation Award from Iowa State, the 2021 Early Career Award from the Research on the Education of Asian Pacific Americans Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Award, the 2021 Early Career Award from the College and University Faculty Assembly of the National Council for the Social Studies, the 2024 Early Career Award from the Association for Asian American Studies, and the Innovations in Research on Equity and Social Justice in Teaching and Teacher Education Award from Division K of AERA.

Outside of academia, my interests include baking, art, music, documentaries, crafting, and obsessively listening to true crime podcasts. Follow me on Instagram at @NaseemRdz and on Bluesky at nrdz.bsky.social