Promoting Language and STEAM as Human Rights in Education: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics

Dr. Zehlia Babaci-Wilhite is a Researcher at the Graduate School of Education and President of the Humanities and Social Science Association at the University of California-Berkeley, as well as an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco and at Saint Mary’s College of California, USA. She is also a lecturer at San Jose State University. Dr. Babaci-Wilhite is affiliated with the Norwegian Center for Human Rights, and supervises students at the Department of Educational Research at the University of Oslo, Norway, where she obtained her Master’s and PhD in Comparative and International Education. She has taught courses and workshops in the USA, Norway, Japan, India, France, Tanzania, South Africa and Nigeria on issues related to language and culture, development and human rights. Her current research interests include Language and Science Literacy as a Human Right in Education, Development Aid, African Higher Education and Technology. Through her recent research projects, she has developed an interest in the pedagogy of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), putting the “A” in STEM and transforming it into STEAM. She is the author of many published articles in prominent academic journals, of several book chapters, and of two books: one on Local Languages as a Human Right in Education and the other on Language, Development Aid and Human Rights: Curriculum Policies in Africa and Asia. Dr. Babaci-Wilhite has also edited two volumes: Giving Space to African Voices and Human Rights in Language and STEM Education. She is fluent in French, English, Norwegian, Japanese and Berber, with knowledge of Arabic, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Swahili and Igbo.