Photo of Germinaro, Kaleb

Kaleb Germinaro, PhD

Assistant Professor

Curriculum & Instruction

Pronouns: He/Him/His

Contact

Building & Room:

ETMSW 3220

Office Phone:

312.996.4508

Email:

kaleb@uic.edu

About

Kaleb is an artist, writer, problem solver and transdisciplinary scholar. The core of his passions are around the percolation and cultivation of knowledge, designing learning opportunities to actualize said knowledge, and constructing space for relationships to be realized. His framing and focus is informed by his attention to spatial, relational, political and historical dimensions of possibility that afford memory work across temporalities. His work spans Black ecologies & geographies, critical feminist disability studies, environmental humanities, human geography & learning sciences; critically engaging transdisciplinary scholarship to answer questions of how we understand knowledge as a set of (power) relations, and ways to invoke learning as a tool for resistance. You can find him spending time with his pup, cosplaying as a nat geo photographer and enjoying a new coffee spot.

Areas of expertise:

  • Qualitative methodologies
  • Black geographies & ecologies
  • Community-based design research
  • Critical disability studies & the environment

Selected Grants

Mellon Foundation, Public Knowledge Grant, co-PI

Sustainability Fund, Crip Solarpunk Studio Series, PI

Donaghue Foundation, Pharmacy Transitional Team: Evaluating the Value for Patients with Limited English Proficiency, co-PI

Selected Publications

Germinaro, K. (2025). Blackness, place and learning: Youth cultivating a sense of identity-in-place through spatial storylines. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 34(2), 91–139. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2025.2462314.

Germinaro, K. (2025). Our Spatial Orientation: Positionality, Relationality, and Learning Through the Body. Qualitative Inquiry, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004251319462

Germinaro, K. (2025). Reclaiming public space as educational space. Dialogues in Human Geography, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/20438206251406733

Germinaro, K., & Logan,, A. (2025). Actualizing black spatial histories through a speculative youth archiving project. Occasional Paper Series, (53), 20-34. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1543

Jadallah, C. C., Barry, K. M., Germinaro, K., & Barry, N. (2025). Building the world anew: on critical hope in climate change education. Environmental Education Research, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2025.2498941

Germinaro, K., & Nickson, D. (2024). Black Spatial Storylines: Connections of Black Space, Sound and Story as Pedagogy. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23.

Germinaro, K. (2024). In between the lines: Black and Brown adolescents creating a homeplace across school settings. Urban Education, 59(5), 1428-1454.

Germinaro, K. (2022). Healing through geography: A spatial-learning analysis and praxis. Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 11(3).

Germinaro, K., Dunn, E., Polk, K. D., de Vries, H. G., Daugherty, D., & Jones, J. (2022). Diversity in outdoor education: Discrepancies in SEL across a school overnight program. Journal of Experiential Education, 45(3), 256-275.

Notable Honors

2025, Faculty Fellow, Institute of Race Research & Public Policy

2024, Emerging Scholar Award, International Society of Learning Scientists

2023, Dissertation Award, AAG Critical Geographies of Education Speciality Group

Education

PhD in Learning Sciences & Human Development, University of Washington
MS in Human Development, University of Pennsylvania
BA in Philosophy, Politics & Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Professional Memberships

Association of American Geographers

America Education Research Association

International Society of the Learning Sciences

Black in Design

Artistic and Professional Performances and Exhibits

www.alternativepractice.org