Dr. Vasudevan is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Learning. Prior to joining the School of Education, she was a postdoctoral associate at New York University, where she worked on two National Science Foundation funded research projects, the first examined how an online citizen science platform called MindHive shaped high school students’ science identities and the second explored how centering art could expand opportunities for middle school students to cultivate data literacies. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the American Museum of Natural History where she examined how a science-community partnership could deepen science learning across school, home, and museum for early childhood learners, their parents, and educators. Before earning her doctorate, she designed and oversaw large scale educational technology and policy efforts focused on knowledge sharing amongst K12 educators with city and state governments. She also spent several years working with non-profits and NGOs on issues of education, equity, and economic inequality. She began her career as a technology product developer.
Her broader research agenda explores STEM learning, educational equity, and urban education with an emphasis on understanding the lives of children and youth through the lenses of identity, learning, and literacies. She is committed to equity and justice, and placing people at the center of technology, teaching, design, and classrooms.
Veena holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education.
Scholarly Interests
- Digital literacies
- STEM/STEAM learning
- Educational Equity
- Teacher Education
- Educational Ethnography
- Qualitative Methods
Featured Publications
- Vasudevan, V., Gross, N., Nagarajan, P., Clonan-Roy, K. (2022). Care-Based Methodologies Reimagining Qualitative Research with Youth in US Schools. Bloomsbury Press.
- Vasudevan, V. (2022). Designing Their Own Curriculum: How Youth Co-Constructed a Dance Team that Opposed Traditional Student-School Relationships. Curriculum Inquiry.
- Stornaiuolo, A., Nichols, T.P., and Vasudevan, V. (2018). Building Spaces for Literacy in School: Mapping the Emergence of a Literacy Makerspace. English Teaching: Practice and Critique. DOI: 10.1108/ETPC-03-2018-0033
- Vasudevan, V., & Kafai, Y. B. (2016). Bridging Crafting and Computing in Making: Designing Interactive Touchpads and Board Games with MaKey MaKey. In Peppler, K., Halverson, E., & Kafai, Y. B. (Eds.). (2016). Makeology: Makerspaces as learners (Volume 2) Routledge.
- Vasudevan, V., Kafai, Y.B, & Widman, S. (2016). Make Code Play: A Project Guide to Game Design Beyond the Screen. Online publication. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania. Available at: http://www.yasminkafai.com/mcp/
- Fields, D., Vasudevan, V. & Kafai, Y.B. (2015). The programmers’ collective: fostering participatory culture by making music videos in a high school Scratch coding workshop. Interactive Learning Environments. DOI: 10.1080/10494820.2015.1065892