Rebecca Cooper Geller is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs). She was previously an Assistant Professor of Secondary Social Studies Education at the University of Wyoming. She obtained her Ph.D. in Education with a focus on Urban Schooling at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and her Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in Comparative History of Ideas with a minor in Law, Societies, and Justice at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs) as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. After her studies at UW, she became a classroom teacher in an Oakland, California public charter school, where she taught for six years at both the elementary and middle school levels.
Rebecca’s scholarship focuses on critical social studies and civic education, research-practice partnerships, and supporting teachers to build classrooms that are democratic and humanizing for marginalized youth. Her scholarship has examined teachers’ experiences and understanding of discussing controversial issues in contested political contexts, using mixed-reality simulation technology to support teacher learning in facilitating controversial issue discussions, and teaching about reproductive rights and histories in social studies.
She has worked on such diverse projects as creating the Mann UCLA Community School in South Los Angeles, consulting with the American Civil Liberties Union, and UCLA’s Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access and Black Male Institute. Her research has been published in Teachers College Record, Social Education, Democracy & Education, and Theory & Research in Social Education.
Outside of her scholarship and teaching, she enjoys spending time with her family and dog, Luna.
Curriculum vitae (updated June 2024)
My to be read pile:
The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having—or Being Denied—an Abortion, Diana Greene Foster
The Barn, Wright Thompson
James, Percival Everett