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2026 Expanding Equity in Educational Research Speaker Series

This year’s event examined creative praxis, multiliteracies, and the arts

Luiza Botelho stands at a podium and addresses an audience seated in front of her.Dr. Grace D. Player stands at a podium. To her left is a presentation screen with her research project onto it.Darnel Degand stands at a podium with a sign attached that reads "UC Davis School of Education."Prof. Danny C. Martinez stands at a podium that reads "UC Davis School of Education" and addresses the audience seated in front of him.Attendees seated in the audience turn to speak with each other before the start of the event.Attendees seated in the audience turn to speak with each other before the start of the event.Prof. Kevin Gee stands at a podium and addresses the audience seated in front of him. On the presentation screen to his left are the words "Dr. Kevin Gee, Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs, School Organization and Educational Policy."Luiza Botelho addresses the audience.Prof. Alicia Rusoja stands at a podium. She speaks into a microphone while addressing Grace Player, who is seated at a panelist table to her left.Grace Player sits at a table in front of the audience and speaks into a microphone that she's holding.An event attendee seated in the audience holds a microphone in her hand and addresses the speakers.Profs. Kristine Espinoza and Tom Smith stand at the back of an event space and speak to each other.Prof. Patricia Quijada speaks with an event attendee during the event reception.Profs. Darnel Degand and Kevin Gee speak to each other during the event reception.Luiza Botelho and Grace Player pose for a photo together after the event.

Exploring Learning Through Art and Community

On October 22, award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer Luiza Botelho and University of Connecticut literacy scholar, educator, and artist Dr. Grace D. Player joined the School of Education’s Expanding Equity in Educational Research speaker series to explore how art and community shape identity and expand possibilities for learning.

Player shared her research with girls and femmes of color who curated an art exhibition envisioning educational justice. Reflecting on her own childhood, she recalled wanting learning spaces where she could be “more fully myself, more imaginative, more free.” The event also included a screening of Botelho’s short film “BELA LX-404″ and a discussion of Afrofuturism’s power to help people envision themselves in the future. Botelho described this as “thinking and dreaming collectively how that future can be.”

Organized by Profs. Darnel Degand and Danny C. Martinez, the event also featured remarks from Profs. Kevin Gee and Alicia Rusoja.

Our Speakers

Headshot of Luiza BotelhoLuiza Botelho is an award-winning director, screenwriter, and producer whose work spans narrative fiction, documentaries, and global campaigns for the BBC and TED. She directed the short “BELA LX-404,” which won 7 awards, and produced the acclaimed feature documentary My Friend Fela (2019) and the fiction feature Rita’s Father (O Pai da Rita, 2022), produced by Globo Films. She is currently developing her debut feature film, Saudade, which won the 2025 Producer’s Network Award at Cinélatino Toulouse (France).

Headshot of Grace D. PlayerDr. Grace D. Player’s work is rooted in her experiences as a mixed-race Asian American woman, daughter, and sister. A literacy scholar, educator, and artist with a longstanding commitment to collaborating with communities of Color, her work takes on a feminist of Color lens to inquire into how girls, women, and femmes of Color mobilize their raced, gendered, and cultural knowledges and ways of knowing to forge sisterhoods that resist injustice and transform worlds. She is currently an associate professor of literacy at the University of Connecticut Neag School of Education. Her forthcoming book, Collective Radical Curation in Literacy Education: Girls and Femmes of Color and Their Creative Multiliteracies, will be published in the Spring of 2027.

About the Series

The School of Education’s Expanding Equity in Educational Research speaker series brings multidisciplinary experts to UC Davis to explore how faculty and students can use their research to shift practices and create more equitable outcomes across the educational field.

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