Linda Charmaraman, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Linda Charmaraman joined the Wellesley Centers for Women in September 2006 as a National Institutes of Child and Human Development (NICHD) Postdoctoral Research Fellow. In August 2006, she completed work toward her Ph.D. in Human Development and Education from the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Education. Her dissertation is entitled, Cognitive and Social Development Through Digital Media Construction in an Urban After-School Community. Utilizing frames of reference from human development, educational psychology, as well as language and literacy traditions, this mixed-method case study provided a window into the lives of youth media artists and collaborators who inventively utilized digital media technology to construct their versions of urban youth identity. By analyzing field observations, interviews, questionnaires, and media artifacts of focal students, the opportunities for cognitive and social development were traced from the conception of storylines, to the production process, to the community reception of youth works. Active participation in the tight-knit collaborating alliances in the program promoted group work ethics, sense of belonging, solidarity, responsibility, and recognition of hidden talents. The intermediate youth media producers, in particular, were cognizant of their agency and ability to promote social change through harnessing the mutable tools of media production within a supportive creative community.
Linda Charmaraman's research interests center on bridging societal gaps, ranging from 21st century literacies to adolescent identity to positive urban youth development. At the Wellesley Centers for Women, Dr. Charmaraman is able to extend her current parameters as a researcher on the Mixed Ancestry Project, in which she plans to help document the existence or absence of community-level support networks to holistically promote resiliency and agency in disenfranchised adolescents. Her long-term goal is to delineate the key contributions of minority peer group relations and how closely-knit communities shape the mental health and cultural capital of individuals, noting any differences within ethnic, racial, socioeconomic, and gender boundaries. Along with Dr. Grossman, she is currently developing research articles and conference proposals that focus on the meaning of racial/ethnic centrality on adolescent identity. In spring of 2008, Dr. Charmaraman will be a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Wellesley College Psychology Department, teaching a course on Asian-American Psychology.
Dr. Charmaraman received her B.A. from UC Berkeley with a double major in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Studies, concentration in Cognition & the Learning Process. Throughout her doctoral program, she was the coordinator of graduate student diversity recruitment in her department and a student delegate of the Equity Committee. For over six years, she maintained a strong commitment to providing a forum for women artists and activists to be showcased by being a host/producer of a local "Womyn in the Arts" radio show, collaborating with the Empowering Women of Color Conference, and directing the Women of Color Film Festival in the Bay Area. She was also on the Advisory Board for the national women's film festival, Lunafest, which raises money for the Breast Cancer Fund and local nonprofit organizations. Through the NICHD post-doctoral fellowship at Wellesley, Dr. Charmaraman hopes to merge her personal interests in gender and ethnic equity issues with her academic research agenda, focusing on writing externally funded grants in order to create movement and dialogue on critical social issues. Her preceptors are Sumru Erkut, Michelle Porche, and Allison Tracy. (Appointed 2006-08)
Upcoming Publication:
Charmaraman, L. (2008) Gangs of social resistance: Urban adolescents take back their images and their streets through media production. Afterschool Matters, In Press.
Recent Conference Presentations:
Charmaraman, L. (2007, April). The importance of audience and agency to re-present: Urban youth media producers in the Bay Area. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, Illinois.
Charmaraman, L. (2006, July). Assessing social and cognitive development through digital media arts production in an after-school program for urban adolescents: A mixed methods approach. Poster presented at the 2nd Annual Mixed Methods Conference, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
Charmaraman, L. (2006, July). Exploring imaginative worlds through digital storytelling in an urban after-school community. Paper presented at the 4th annual International Conference on Imagination and Education. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Full text available here.
Charmaraman, L., McKinney, M., & Sung, K. (2006, March). Diversity recruitment strategies at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education. Poster presented at the 6th annual GSE Research Day, Berkeley, CA.
Charmaraman, L. (2006, April). Collaboration, optimism, constructive criticism, and mentoring between at-risk students through after school media production. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, SIG: Talent Development of Students Placed At-Risk, San Francisco, CA.
Charmaraman, L. (2006, April). Building collaboration, communication, and sense of community through digital media technologies: An Oakland case study. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Division C, San Francisco, CA.
Charmaraman, L. (2005, April). Becoming visible: Teacher support for classroom film and media use. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Division K, Montreal, Canada.
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