Omar Davila Jr.

Omar Davila Jr. (Ph.D. | Education | UC Berkeley) is an Assistant Professor of Child Studies at Santa Clara University. His research examines the nexus of education policy, political discourse, and the social construction of merit. More specifically, he investigates how social inequality is reproduced and resisted; how political ideologies shape academic contexts; and how to reimagine education to serve a transformative end. His research appears in numerous academic journals, including Teachers College Record; Race Ethnicity and Education; Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education; Urban Education; and more. His work received financial support from UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, and the Center for Latino Policy Research. He was previously a McNair Scholar at California State University-Monterey Bay, and a visiting scholar at Michigan State University and Yale University. In addition, Professor Davila serves as Director of the Future Teachers Project (FTP), a teacher preparation program for students who aspire to become teachers in urban contexts. FTP scholars participate in weekly seminars, scholarly research, and community leadership. FTP has produced three publications—all of which were co-authored with undergraduate and high school students—examining various topics related to educational inequality: (1) the zero-sum phenomenon in education (Davila et al, 2021), (2) political discourse vis-à-vis the “teacher shortage” (Davila et al., 2022), and (3) the experiences of Latinx youth participating in a Grow-Your-Own teacher preparation program (Davila et al, 2025).