Helen (Olena) Aydarova received an Outstanding Dissertation Award at Michigan State University. She is a graduate of our MA program.

Helen earned her MA in Linguistics here at USC in 2005.  She is doing well!

Helen (Olena) Aydarova is receiving one of two Outstanding Dissertation Awards presented this year by AERA Div. K.Aydarova earned her Ph.D. from the Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education (CITE) program at Michigan State University in 2015 and now is a post-doctoral scholar at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. Aydarova’s dissertation, “Teacher Education Reform as Political Theater: Modernization Dramas in the Russian Federation,” focuses on the reform of teacher education in Russia in the global neoliberal context. It explores shifting and contested definitions of teacher education in the face of globally circulating notions of what constitutes “modern education” and a “qualified teacher.” She received funding to support her research with a prestigious Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship. Professor Michael Sedlak was her advisor, and Lynn Paine was her dissertation director.