Biography

Dr. Farima Pour-Khorshid was born and raised in the Bay Area where she later taught at the elementary grade levels in her community for over a decade. She has supported educators locally, nationally, and internationally through her roles as a university professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant, and community organizer. She is committed to abolition and healing-centered engagement within and outside of the field of education. Much of her work is rooted in healing centered initiatives with Flourish Agenda across the country, as well as community based and education organizing as she serves in leadership roles within the Teachers 4 Social Justice organization, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and the National Education for Liberation Network, which organizes the Free Minds Free People conference. 

Dr. Pour-Khorshid is one of the organizers, editors, and contributing authors of the book, Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for K-12 Educators, a collaboration between the Education for Liberation Network, Critical Resistance, and several other grassroots abolitionist and justice centered collectives. 

Research Areas

  • Healing Centered Engagement
  • Abolitionist Teaching 
  • Critical Professional Development
  • Grassroots Teacher Organizing 
  • Ethnic Studies

Education

  • University of California, Santa Cruz, Ph.D. in Education, Emphasis in Language, Literacy and Culture, 2018
  • University of California, Santa Cruz, M.A. in Education, Emphasis in Language, Literacy and Culture, 2015
  • California State University, East Bay, M.S. Education, Emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction, 2009
  • California State University, East Bay, California State Teacher Credential with English Learner Authorization, 2007
  • California State University, East Bay, B.A. in Liberal Studies, Emphasis in Childhood Studies, 2007
  • Chabot College, A.A. in Liberal Arts, 2004

Awards & Distinctions

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  • California State University, East Bay 40 Under 40 Award, recognizing young alumni who have demonstrated dedication, excellence, and development in their professional and personal endeavors and have made significant contributions toward improving and uplifting their communities and beyond, 2023.
  • The University of California, Davis Educational Opportunity Program’s Award for Significant Impact on First-Generation Undergraduate Students Cultivating Growth, Performance and Educational Equity, 2020.
  • Outstanding Global Glimpse Educator, 2019
  • International Award Winning Author for "No Estas Solo", Latino Book Award, 2018
  • Engaging Scholarship and Activism Award, 2017
  • California Legislature Assembly Certificate of Recognition for contributions to the You Are Not Alone book, presented by California Member of the Senate, Bob Weieckowski, District 10, 2016
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year Award, Graduate Division, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2015
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Selected Publications

  • Regalado, Y., Martell, J., Pour-Khorshid, F., San Pedro, T., Sealey-Ruiz, Y., & Souto-Manning, M. (2023). A Kitchen-Table on Disrupting and Dreaming Beyond the Prescribed Curriculum, Equity & Excellence in Education.
  • Sabati, S., Pour-Khorshid, F., Meiners, E. & Hernandez, C. (2022). Dismantle, Change, Build: Lessons for Growing Abolition in Teacher Education,  Teachers College Record, ID Number: 23728.
  • Hernandez, C. A., Pour-Khorshid, F., Meiners, E. R., & Sabati, S. (2022). Building Transformative Justice Communities: Why Abolitionist Work in Schools Is, and Must Always be, Feminist 1. In Handbook of Critical Approaches to Politics and Policy of Education (pp. 161-174). Routledge.
  • Reynolds, A. D., Botts, R., & Pour-Khorshid, F. (2021). Critical Sisterhood Praxis: Curating a Woman of Color Feminist Intervention for Spiritual Reclamation in the Academy. Educational Foundations, 34(1).
  • Pour-Khorshid, F. & Zuniga, M. (2021). Why Spiritual Revival Matters: Spirit Murdering that Shapes Elementary Schooling, Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators, AK Press.  
  • Buenavista, T. L., Cariaga, S., Curammeng, E. R., McGovern, E. R., Pour-Khorshid, F., Stovall, D. O., & Valdez, C. (2021). A Praxis of Critical Race Love: Toward the Abolition of Cisheteropatriarchy and Toxic Masculinity in Educational Justice Formations. Educational Studies, 57(3), 238-249.
  • Pour-Khorshid, F. (2020). Teaching to Heal, Healing to Teach: Ethnic Studies as a Healing Endeavor in and out of the Classroom, Planting the Seeds of Equity: Ethnic Studies and Social Justice in the K–2 Classroom,  Teachers College Press.
  • Valdez, C., Pour-Khorshid, F., & Cariaga, C. (2020, July). Crisis, Change, and Canceling the Teacher Performance Assessment, Rethinking Schools, Volume 34, No. 4.
  • Pour-Khorshid, F. (2018). Cultivating sacred spaces: a racial affinity approach to support critical educators of color, Teaching Education, 29:4, 318-329.
  • Valdez, C., Curammeng, E., Pour-Khorshid, F., Kohli, R., Nikundiwe, T., Picower, B., Shalaby, C., & Stovall, D. (2018). We Are Victorious: Educator Activism as a Shared Struggle for Human Being. In The Educational Forum (Vol. 82, No. 3, pp. 244-258). Routledge.
  • Anderson-Zavala, C., Krueger-Henney, P., Meiners, E., & Pour-Khorshid, F. (2017). Fierce Urgency of Now: Building Movements to End the Prison Industrial Complex in Our Schools. Multicultural Perspectives, 19(3), 151-154.