Welcoming Jared and Marcia to the GCSSD team!

Jared Furuta
Postdoc Fellow

Jared Furuta is a postdoctoral fellow at PACS, where his research focuses on how educational institutions are culturally constructed in response to changing social norms, conceptions, and taken-for-granted assumptions about education.  His past research has examined global changes in national high stakes exams, school tracking, national assessments, and U.S. college admissions policies, and his work has appeared in Sociology of Education, Social Forces, and Comparative Education Review.  His current work focuses on long-term changes in systemic educational reform, as well as the effects of educational institutions on economic, political, and social outcomes at the national level.  He has previously worked in UX research at Meta.  

Marcia Xiyu Yang
PhD Student 

Marcia is a first-year International and Comparative Education Ph.D. student. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy and Public Affairs from Claremont McKenna College, and a M.A. in International Affairs with a focus in International Development and Non-profit Management from UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. The central questions guiding her research are under what conditions do states choose to centralize education, and how do political structures affect education reforms? She is originally from Los Angeles, and between her B.A. and M.A., she was a junior high school English teacher in Japan for three years.

Join us in extending a warm welcome to Jared and Marcia!