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» Home » Stein, Sharon

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Stein, Sharon

Associate Professor

Professor of Climate Complexity and Coloniality

sharon.stein@ubc.ca

About


In collaboration with my research collective, Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures, and many other collaborators and communities, my work asks how education can equip people to navigate intensifying social, ecological, and psychological destabilization in relationally reparative and intergenerationally responsible ways.

My current SSHRC Insight Grant, “Decolonial Systems Literacy for Navigating ‘Wicked’ Social and Ecological Problems” supports a cluster of research-creation projects dedicated to experimenting with education and AI otherwise. These projects include Rewiring 4 Reality, Burnout From Humans, University of the Future, and Settler Responsibilities.

Research and Education


Books

Stein, S. (2022). Unsettling the university: Confronting the colonial foundations of US higher education. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Jimmy, E., Andreotti, V., & Stein, S. (2019). Towards braiding. Musagetes Foundation.

Articles

Ahenakew, C., Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Inu Huni Kui, N., Taylor, L., Prince, S., Ramesh, J., Williams, C., Suša, R., Vukovic, R. & Diaz-Diaz, C. (in press). Decolonizing mental health in the polycrisis: Pathways toward neuro-decolonization. American Psychologist.

Stein, S. & Andreotti, V.D.O. (2025). Repurposing higher education in times of social and ecological breakdown: From the ivory tower to the nurse log. Canadian Journal of Education.

Stein, S. (2025). “Your rent is due, higher education”: Beyond apologies and towards reparations. Comparative Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2025.2463810

Brunner, L., Shokirova, T., Gamal, M. & Stein, S. (2025). Higher education’s care/control of refugee and displaced students. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 12(2), 11-33. http://dx.doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/2212

Stein, S. (2024). Making space for critical climate education. About Campus, 29(5), 4-13. https://doi.org/10.1177/10864822241284

Stein, S. (2024). Universities confronting climate change: Beyond sustainable development and solutionism. Higher Education, 87, 165-183. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-023-00999-w

Stein, S. (2024).  The paradox of educational silences and cacophonies in liquid modernity. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 39, 1-10.  https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/issue/issue-39/paradox-educational-silences-and-cacophonies-liquid-modernity

Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., Valley, W., Sherpa, P., Crowson, E., Robin, T., Mendes, W., & Evans, S. (2024). Towards more ethical engagements between Western and Indigenous sciences. FACETS, 4, 1-14, https://www.facetsjournal.com/doi/10.1139/facets-2023-0071

Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Ahenakew, C., Susa, R., Taylor, L., Valley, W., Siwek, D., Cardoso, C., Duque, C., Calhoun, B., van Sluys, S., Pigeau, D., & D’Emilia, D. (2024). Education beyond green growth: Regenerative inquiry for intergenerational responsibility. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 8(2), https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.5618

Stein, S., Robin, T., Wesley, M., Valley, W., Clegg, D., Ahenakew, C. &. Cohen, T. (2023). Confronting colonialism in Canadian dietetics curricula. Canadian Journal of Dietetic Practice and Research, 84(4), 226-232. https://doi.org/10.3148/cjdpr-2023-017

Stein, S. & Hare, J. (2023). The challenges of interrupting climate colonialism in higher education: Reflections on a climate emergency report. Harvard Educational Review, 93(3), 289-312. https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-93.3.289

Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Susa, R., Ahenakew, C., Valley, W., Huni Kui, N., Tremembé, M., Taylor, L, Siwek, D., Cardoso, C., Duque, C., Oliveira da Silva Huni Kui, S., Calhoun, B., van Sluys, S., Amsler, S., D’Emilia, D., Pigeau, D., Andreotti, B. Bowness, E., & McIntyre, A. (2023). Beyond colonial futurities in climate education. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(5), 987-1004.

Stein, S., Ahenakew, C. Oliveira da Silva Huni Kui, S., Bowness, E., Mendes, W., & Evans, S. (2023). Towards settler responsibility in conservation. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 22(2), 894-920.

Nobrega, R.L.B, Alencar, P.H.L., Alves, J., Baniwa, B., Bowness, B., Buell, M., Chaffe, P.L.B., Correira, D.M.P., Correa, D.M.S., Ferreira Domingues, T., Fleishmann, A., Furgal, C.M., Giatti, L.L., Huni Kui, S.O.S., Huni Kui, N.I.P.N, Jenipapo-Kaninde, J.A., Li, H., Mamede, A.F.M., Moura, J.F., Nehemy, M.F., Pinheiro, R.L.G., Prist, P.R., Ribeiro, S.C., Tremembé, M., Bowness, E., Franca, F.M, & Stein, S. (2023). Co-designing pathways to protect land, nature, territory, and well-being in Amazonia. Communications Earth & Environment, 4.

Stein, S., Andreotti, V., Suša, R., Ahenakew, C. & Cajkova, T. (2022). From “education for sustainable development” to “education for the end of the world as we know it”. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 54 (3), 274-287. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1835646

Erikson, K. & Stein, S. (2022). Good intentions, colonial relations: Interrupting the affective economy of Norwegian citizenship education. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 44(3), 210-230. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2021.1959210

Dring, C., Cajkova, T., Mendes, W., Stein, S., Valley, W., & Clegg, D.J. (2022). Ontological awareness in food system education. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2022.750776

Stein, S. (2021). Critical internationalization studies at an impasse: Making space for complexity, uncertainty, and complicity in a time of global challenges. Studies in Higher Education, 46(9), 1771-1784. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2019.1704722

Stein, S. (2021). What can decolonial and abolitionist critiques teach the field of higher education? Review of Higher Education, 44(3), 387-414. doi:10.1353/rhe.2021.0000

Stein, S. (2021). Reimagining global citizenship education for volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) times. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 19(4), 482-495. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1904212

Stein, S. (2021). Beyond the usual debates: Creating the conditions for academic freedom to flourish. Australian Universities’ Review, 63(1), 55-58. https://aur.nteu.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/AUR-63-01.pdf

Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Suša, R., Cajkova, T., Pitaguary, R., & Pitaguary, B. (2021). Calibrating our vital compass: Unlearning colonial habits of being in everyday life. Rizoma Freireano, 30. http://www.rizoma-freireano.org/articles-3030/calibrating-our-vital *

Lobo, M., Bedford, L., Bellingham, R.A., Davies, K., Halafoff, A., Mayes, E., Sutton, B., Marwung Walsh, A., Stein, S. & Lucas, C. (2021). Earth unbound: Climate change, activism and justice. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 53(14), 1491-1508. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1866541

Stein, S. & Silva, J. (2020). The challenges and complexities of decolonizing internationalization in a time of global crises. Digital Thematic Education/Educação Temática Digital, 22(3), 546-566. http://dx.doi.org/10.20396/etd.v22i3.8659310

Stein, S. (2020). A colonial history of the higher education present: Rethinking land-grant institutions through processes of accumulation and relations of conquest. Critical Studies in Education, 61(2), 212-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2017.1409646

Stein, S. (2020). ‘Truth before reconciliation’: The difficulties of transforming higher education in settler colonial contexts. Higher Education Research and Development, 39(1), 156-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1666255

Stein, S., Andreotti, V., de Souza, L.M., Ahenakew, C. & Suša, R. (2020). Who decides? In whose name? For whose benefit? Decoloniality and its discontents. On Education. Journal for Research and Debate, 3(7), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.17899/on_ed.2020.7.2

Stein, S., Andreotti, S., Hunt, D., Suša, R., Amsler, S., Ahenakew, C., Jimmy, E., Cardoso, C., Siwek, D., Cajkova, T., Pitaguary, B., Pataxo, U., Valley, W., D’Emilia, D., & Okano, H. (2020). Gesturing towards decolonial futures: Reflections on our learnings thus far. Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education, 4(1), 43-65. http://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.3518 *

Buckner, E. & Stein, S. (2020). What counts as internationalization? Deconstructing the internationalization imperative. Journal of Studies in International Education, 24(2), 151-166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315319829878

Pashby, K., Costa, M., Stein, S. & Andreotti, V. (2020). A meta-review of typologies of global citizenship education: From description to critique. Comparative Education, 56(2), 144-164. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2020.1723352

Stein, S. (2019). Beyond higher education as we know it: Gesturing towards decolonial horizons of possibility. Studies in Philosophy & Education, 38(2), 143-161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-018-9622-7

Stein, S. (2019). The ethical and ecological limits of sustainability: A decolonial approach to climate change in higher education. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 35(3), 198-212. https://doi.org/10.1017/aee.2019.17

Stein, S. (2019). Navigating different theories of change for higher education in volatile times. Educational Studies, 55(6), 667-688. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2019.1666717

Stein, S., Andreotti, V. & Boxall, R. (2019). The ethics of private funding for graduate students in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Critical Education, 10(16), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v10i16.186429

Stein, S., Andreotti, V., & Suša, R. (2019). ‘Beyond 2015’, within the modern/colonial global imaginary? Global development and higher education. Critical Studies in Education, 60(3), 281-301. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1247737

Stein, S, Andreotti, V. & Suša, R. (2019). Pluralizing frameworks for global ethics in the internationalization of higher education in Canada. Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 49(1), 22-46. https://doi.org/10.47678/cjhe.v49i1.188244

Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Suša, R. & Coletivo de arte/educacao “Sinalizando rumo a futuros descoloniais” (2019). Da casa construida pela modernidade ao micelio saudavel. Sinergias – Dialogos Educativos Para a Transformacao Social, 8, 9-19. https://www.2013-2021sinergiased.org/images//revista/Revista12/Sinergias_12_Vfinal.pdf [Portuguese]

Andreotti, V., Stein, S., Siwek, D., Cardoso, C., Cajkova, T., Pataxo, U., Pitaguary, B., Pitaguary, R., Huni Kui, N., & Jimmy, E. (2019). Sinalizando rumo a futuros descoloniais: Observacoes pedagogicas e de pesquisa de campo. Sinergias – Dialogos Educativos Para a Transformacao Social, 9, 9-16. https://www.2013-2021sinergiased.org/images//revista/Revista12/Sinergias_12_Vfinal.pdf [Portuguese] *

Stein, S. (2018). Confronting the racial-colonial foundations of US higher education. Journal for the Study of Postsecondary and Tertiary Education, 3, 77-98. https://doi.org/10.28945/4105

Stein, S. (2018). Higher education and the im/possibility of transformative justice. Critical Ethnic Studies, 4(1), 130-153. https://doi.org/10.5749/jcritethnstud.4.1.0130

Stein, S. (2018). National exceptionalism in the “EduCanada” brand: Unpacking the ethics of internationalization marketing in Canada. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 39(3), 461-477. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2016.1276884

Stein, S. (2018). Racialized frames of value in U.S. university presidents’ responses to the travel ban. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 17(4), 893-919. https://www.acme-journal.org/index.php/acme/article/view/1705

Stein, S. (2018). Rethinking critical approaches to global and development education. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 27, 1-13. https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/sites/default/files/article-pdfs/Stein%20Editorial%20Issue%2027.pdf

Andreotti, V.D.O., Stein, S., Amsler, S., Sutherland, A., Suša, R., Pashby, K. & the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Collective. (2018). Mobilising different conversations about global justice in education: Toward alternative futures in uncertain times. Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review, 26, 9-41. https://www.developmenteducationreview.com/sites/default/files/article-pdfs/Andreotti%20et%20al%20Issue%2026.pdf

Thiago, E.S., Andreotti, V.D.O., & Stein, S. (2018). Reflections on symmetries and asymmetries in the internationalization of higher education in Brazil and Canada. Comparative and International Education/Éducation Comparée et Internationale, 47(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.5206/cie-eci.v47i1.9321

Stein, S. (2017). Internationalization for an uncertain future: Tensions, paradoxes, and possibilities. Review of Higher Education, 41(1), 3-32. doi:10.1353/rhe.2017.0031

Stein, S. (2017). The persistent challenges of addressing epistemic dominance in higher education: Considering the case of curriculum internationalization. Comparative Education Review, 61(S1), S25-S50. https://doi.org/10.1086/690456

Stein, S. & Andreotti, V.D.O. (2017). Afterword: Provisional pedagogies toward imagining global mobilities otherwise. Curriculum Inquiry, 47(1), 135-146. https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2016.1265441

Stein, S. & Andreotti, V.D.O. (2017). Higher education and the modern/colonial global imaginary. Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies, 17(3), 173-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708616672673

Stein, S., Hunt, D., Suša, R. & Andreotti, V.D.O. (2017). The educational challenge of unraveling the fantasies of ontological security. Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 11(2), 69-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2017.1291501

Stein, S. (2016). Rethinking the ethics of internationalization: Five challenges for higher education. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 12(2), 1-23.

Stein, S. (2016). Universities, slavery, and the unthought of anti-Blackness. Cultural Dynamics, 28(2), 169-187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0921374016634379

Stein, S. & Andreotti, V.D.O. (2016). Cash, competition, or charity: International students and the global imaginary. Higher Education, 72(2), 225-239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-015-9949-8

Stein, S., Andreotti, V. D. O., Bruce, J., & Suša, R. (2016). Towards different conversations about the internationalization of higher education. Comparative and International Education/Éducation Comparée et Internationale, 45(1). https://doi.org/10.5206/cie-eci.v45i1.9281

Andreotti, V. D. O., Stein, S., Pashby, K., & Nicholson, M. (2016). Social cartographies as performative devices in research on higher education. Higher Education Research and Development, 35(1), 84-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2015.1125857

Stein, S. (2015). Mapping global citizenship. Journal of College and Character, 16(4), 242-252. https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2015.1091361

Stein, S. & Andreotti, V. D. O. (2015). Complicity, ethics and education: Political and existential readings of Spivak’s work. Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 9(1), 29-43.

Andreotti, V. D. O., Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., & Hunt, D. (2015). Mapping interpretations of decolonization in the context of higher education. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 4(1), 21-40. https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/22168/18470

Reports

Stein, S., Ahenakew, C., & Oliveira da Silva Huni Kui, S. (2023). Complexities of confronting colonialism in conservation. rare Charitable Research Reserve. https://blogs.ubc.ca/confrontingcolonialism/files/2023/04/Confronting-Colonialism-in-Conservation-2023.pdf




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