Cristina L. Lash

Cristina Lash is a doctoral candidate in the Race, Inequality, and Language in Education program in the Graduate School of Education. Her current work explores how schools have adapted to racial, ethnic, and cultural shifts as a result of immigration to the United States. Her broader research interests include cultural reproduction, assimilation theory, and national identity. Cristina received her M.A. in Education at UC Berkeley and her B.A. in Comparative Literature at Stanford.

Dissertation: Making Americans: Schooling, Diversity, and Assimilation in the 21st Century

Cristina’s dissertation examines how schools teach students what it means to be American in light of immigration-driven diversity. Through a comparative ethnographic study of two middle schools in cities with different levels of immigration, Cristina illuminates how schools “make nationals” through direct classroom instruction, programming and events, and everyday interactions between teachers, students, and staff. She contributes to the sociology of education literature by providing a conceptual link between bi-directional assimilation, nation-making, and multicultural education.