Bio

Lisa M. Perhamus was the inaugural Padnos/Sarosik Endowed Professor of Civil Discourse at Grand Valley State University and now serves as the inaugural director of the university's Padnos/Sarosik Center for Civil Discourse. In addition to her directorship, she is a professor in the Brooks College of Interdisciplinary Studies at Grand Valley.

Earning her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in Curriculum Studies, her Masters in Sociology from The New School for Social Research, and her Bachelor of Arts degree from William Smith College with a double major in English and Religious Studies, Lisa's interdisciplinary background continues to inspire her current civil discourse work. She grounds herself in the idea that every person has a right to be understood, and through her teaching, scholarship, and service, Lisa seeks ways to elevate people's stories in the face of societal barriers that often silence people.

Whether leading a civil discourse training in the community or facilitating group dialogue in the classroom, Lisa's storytelling approach to civil discourse aims to foster mutual understanding through humanizing dialogue rather than divisive debate.

Originally from upstate NY, Lisa enjoys spending time with family and friends; working in her intergenerational garden; and going on backpacking adventures.

Areas of Interest

My qualitative research asks questions about the human experience of oppression across multiple contexts and the kinesthetic ways that children, their families, and community members create conditions of resiliency. I ground my work in the following areas: Feminist Foucauldian theory, sociology of education, anti-oppression education, kinesthetic experiences of schooling, qualitative research, marginalized narrative, civil discourse, social movement-building

Education

Ph.D. University of Rochester: Curriculum Studies 2009
MA The New School for Social Research: Sociology 1995
BA William Smith College: English & Religious Studies 1990

PUBLICATIONS

Perhamus, L. (2024). Biographic-Storytelling Classrooms as a Workaround to Critical Race Theory Pushback, Journal of Educational Controversy, 16(1), Article 3. Available at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/jec/vol16/iss1/3

Bailey-Fakhoury, C., Perhamus, L. & Ma, K. (2021). Feeling displaced, enacting resistance: Race, place, and schooling in the face of gentrifying forces. Urban Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00608-z

Perhamus, L. (2020). Understanding health viscerally: The role of kinesthetic experience in defining health. Thresholds in Education, 43(1), 86-104.

Perhamus, L. & Joldersma, C. (2020). What might sustain the activism of this moment? Dismantling white supremacy, one monument at a time. Journal of the Philosophy of Education 54(5), pp. 1314-1332.

Joldersma, C. & Perhamus, L. (2020). Stealing an education: On the precariousness of justice. Teachers College Record, 122(2), 1-24.

Perhamus, L. & Joldersma, C. (2016). Interpellating dispossession: Distributions of vulnerability and the politics of grieving in the precarious mattering of lives. Philosophical Studies in Education, 47, pp. 56-67.

Thornberg, R., Perhamus, L. & Charmaz, K. (2024). Grounded Theory. In Research methods for studying young children (In series, Contemporary perspectives in Early Childhood Education). Information Age Publishing, Inc.: Charlotte, North Carolina.

Thornberg, R., Perhamus, L. & Charmaz, K. (2014). Grounded Theory. In Handbook of Research Methods in Early Childhood Education, Vol I, (pp. 405-439). Information Age Publishing, Inc.: Charlotte, North Carolina.

Patterson, N. & Perhamus, L. (2015). The rubricization of teacherhood and studenthood: Intertextuality, identity, and the standardization of self. In M. Tenam-Zemach & J. Flynn (Eds.) A Rubric Nation: A Reader on the History, Utility, and Impact of Rubrics in Teacher Education (pp. 21-33). Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing.

AWARDS

Burch, Jacobs & Moore Diversity Teaching Excellence Award, Grand Valley State University (2019)