EDUCATION
| Ph.D. | Education – Social Foundations | University of Virginia |
| M.Ed. | Educational Psychology – Social Foundations | University of Virginia |
| B.S. | Biochemistry (Minor in Education) | Washington and Lee University |
AWARDS AND HONORS
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Gansneder Award for Most Outstanding Dissertation in Qualitative Research, University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development |
| 2025 | Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange Doctoral Fellowship |
| 2024 | Taylor & Francis Past President’s Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Research, American Educational Studies Association (AESA) |
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
Sociology of education
Anthropology of education
Foundations of education
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Race
Ethnicity
Immigration
Youth
Parenting
HIGHLIGHTED PUBLICATIONS
- Hu, C., & Hoffman, D. M. (2025). Poverty and the brain: The new/old language of cultural deficit. Educational Researcher. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189×251349155
- Hu, C. (2023). Asian American racialization in America’s top-ranked public high schools: Synchronizing discourses of model minority and perpetual foreigner. Race Ethnicity and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2023.2279298
- Hu, C. (2023). The purposes and pedagogies of social foundations in teacher education. Educational Studies, 59(5-6), 541-554. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2023.2271587
TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Dr. Hu’s primary teaching aim is to help students understand education and schooling within its broader societal contexts. His approach is to guide students in reflection, analysis, critique, and evaluation of the purposes, goals, and aims of education.
BIOGRAPHY
Christopher Hu, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Social and Cultural Studies in Education at The University of Alabama College of Education. He is an ethnographer whose research examines the intersections of race, immigration, and education with a focus on how minoritized communities navigate U.S. schooling and racial politics. His research centers youth, parents, and families in both in- and out-of-school contexts. He engages these topics through ethnographic, qualitative, and discourse analytic methods. He earned his Ph.D. in the social foundations of education from the University of Virginia. Prior to his doctoral studies, Hu was a high school chemistry teacher in Virginia.