Theme: "Unforgetting Histories and Imagining Futures: Constructing a New Vision for Education Research"
Date: Wednesday, April 8 – Sunday, April 12, 2026
Location: Los Angeles, California
Idalia Nuñez
Early Career Award, Bilingual Education Research SIG
Monica González Ybarra
Early Career Award, Latina/o/x Research Issues SIG
Paul Bruno
Outstanding Reviewer Award, AERA Open and Educational Researcher
Justin Kern
Outstanding Reviewer Award, Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics
Oliver Tapaha
2026 Bobby Wright Award for Early Career Contributions to Research in Indigenous Education, AERA Indigenous Peoples of the Americas SIG
Devon Hedrick-Shaw
Outstanding Dissertation Award (Third Place), Bilingual Education Research SIG
Leslie Ellis
Foster-Polite Scholarship, Division A
Aigul Rakisheva
Travel Award, Environmental Education SIG
Chezare Warren, '05 C&I
2026 AERA Scholars of Color Mid-Career Contribution Award
Royel Johnson, Ed.M. '11 EPOL
2026 Division E Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education
Elise McCarren, Ph.D. '24 EPSY
AERA-NSF Research Grantee
Taiylor Rayford, Ph.D. '25 EPSY
2026 Division E Outstanding Dissertation Awardee in Human Development
Destiny Williams-Dobosz, Ph.D. '25 EPSY
2026 Outstanding Dissertation Award, Critical Examination of Race, Ethnicity, Class, and Gender SIG
Jiadi Zhang, Ph.D. '25 C&I
2026 Outstanding Dissertation Award, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Education and Research SIG
Rochelle Gutiérrez
AERA Council Member-At-Large, 2026-2029
Yoon Pak
AERA Division F (Historical Inquiry in Education) Vice President, 2026-2029
James D. Anderson
Richard C. Anderson
Debra D. Bragg
Hua-Hua Chang
Anne Haas Dyson
Jennifer C. Greene
Rochelle Gutiérrez
Lilian G. Katz
William T. Trent
Jon Hale
Paul Bruno
Jessica Gladstone
Gloriana González
Hanna Kim
Jennifer Nelson
Justin Kern
Saturday, April 11, 2026
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Hotel Indigo Downtown LA
Olympic Terrace, 4th Floor
899 Francisco St.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
by communications@education.illinois.edu (Communications Office) / Mar 3, 2026
Idalia Nuñez, associate professor Curriculum & Instruction, has received the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Bilingual Education Research SIG.
This award recognizes an individual in the early stages of their career—within 10 years of receiving the doctoral degree—whose research focuses on the role of bilingualism in education, including bilingual education policy, research, and practice. The Early Career Award Committee and the BER SIG Executive Committee commended the exceptional caliber and impact of Nuñez’s scholarship.
Her research is situated at the intersection of race, bi/multilingualism and bi/literacies, border crossing, education, and social justice. She examines the school experiences of bi/multilingual students from diverse backgrounds, exploring the everyday cultural and linguistic resources they bring into K–5 biliteracy classrooms.
She will receive her award at the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting, April 8-12 in Los Angeles, CA.
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