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Sepehr Vakil

Sepehr Vakil

  • Associate Professor, Learning Sciences
  • Affiliated Faculty member, Science in Human Cultures Program

Contact

sepehr.vakil@northwestern.edu
Website

Academic Area

Learning Sciences
Technology, People and Policy

Research Interests

The future of AI in education. Co-designing culturally and meaningful STEM learning with communities and schools. Ethics and History of STEM education in global contexts. The role of tech policy in higher education and global demands for engineers. The role of comedy in culture and politics.

Biography

Sepehr Vakil is an associate professor of Learning Sciences in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University, where he is the faculty director of the Center for Technology, Policy, and Opportunity, and the M.S program in Technology, People, and Policy (MTePP). He received his PhD in the Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology program at UC Berkeley (2016) and his B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA (2007). He is currently serving as Senior Adviser to the Spencer Foundation on their Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative and was recently appointed to the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee on Developing Competencies for the Future of Data and Computing: The Role of K-12. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Equity for the Center of STEM Education at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Education

  • PhD, Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology, University of California Berkeley, 2016
  • MS, Electrical Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 2007
  • BS, Electrical Engineering, University of California Los Angeles, 2006

Awards and Honors

  • 2024 – Appointed to the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee on Developing Competencies for the future of Data and Computing: The role of K-12.  

  • 2022 – Appointed to the National Academy of Science Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) committee on equity in preK-12 STEM education

  • 2022 – Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies, AERA Division C

  • 2020 – Alumnae Curriculum Innovation Award

  • 2018 – NSF CAREER Award

  • 2018 – NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship

  • 2015 – Thomas I. Yamashita Foundations for Social Change Prize 

Selected Publications

Vakil, S., Ganjavi, M., & Khanlarzadeh, M.  (Spring 2025). Revolutionary Engineers: Learning, Politics, and Activism at Aryamehr University of Technology. Boston, MA: MIT Press. 

Vakil, S., Reith, A., & Melo, N. A. (2023). Jamming power: Youth agency and community‐driven science in a technology learning program. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 60(8), 1723-1754. 
 
Vakil, S., & McKinney de Royston, M. (2022). Youth as philosophers of technology. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 1-20. 

Vakil, S. & Elham, B. (2020). Theorizing the politics of identity in engineering: Reflections from the University of Tehran, Iran. In Proceedings of International Conferences of the Learning Sciences.  

Vakil, S., & Higgs, J. (2019). It’s about power: A call to rethink ethics and equity in computing education. Communications of the ACM: 31-33. 

Vakil, S (2018). Ethics, Identity, and Political Vision: Toward a Justice-Centered Approach to Equity in Computer Science Education. Harvard Educational Review: 26-52. 

Nasir, N., Vakil, S. (2017). STEM-focused academies in urban schools: Tensions and possibilities. Journal of the Learning Sciences: 376-406.