Meet Victoria Concepción Chávez: PhD
Part of an ongoing series featuring our newest PhDs
An educator, scholar, and engineer, Victoria Concepción Chávez (PhD26) is passionate about accessibility, computer science education, and social justice. Their research examines how college computer science policies, teaching practices, and course design can unintentionally disadvantage students, especially those with minoritized identities.
The plans created by computer science departments for the National Science Foundation’s Broadening Participation in Computing initiative, for example, were found to be lacking and potentially counterproductive to equity-oriented goals, according to her dissertation research.
“Her analysis brought in many different types of techniques and can hopefully move us toward identifying ways that computer science departments and institutions of higher education as a whole can really think about disability — which is something I deeply appreciate about her work,” said her advisor, Marcelo Worsley.
- Dissertation: Good Intentions Are Not Enough: An Analysis of Ableism Within Broadening Participation Efforts in Computing
- Advised by: Marcelo Worsley
- Committee: Moya Bailey, Bryan Dewsbury, Rua Williams, Worsley
Chávez was also a popular instructor who designed their courses to recognize and affirm students’ humanity. “She really worked to set up spaces where her students are actually heard and actually seen. It speaks to the passion that drives everything she does,” Worsley said.
Chavez was among fourteen new PhDs were honored and gifted regalia before the 2026 convocation celebration during the third annual doctoral robing ceremony at Northwestern University's School of Education and Social Policy.
The ceremony recognized graduates from SESP's three doctoral programs — Human Development and Social Policy, Learning Sciences, and the joint Computer Science and Learning Sciences program. Each was among the first of its kind in the nation and continues to inspire innovation in education and research.
HDSP students examine how policy affects people — and how people, in turn, influence policy — across the human lifespan. The Learning Sciences program integrates cognition, social context and design to improve how people learn.
The Computer Science and Learning Sciences program, offered between the School of Education and Social Policy and the McCormick School of Engineering, explores how technology can support learning across all ages and contexts.