Research Areas
Biography
Armando J. Torres is a PhD Candidate in Global Studies in Education (GSE) within the Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership (EPOL) department and holds a Bachelor of Art in Global Studies and Master of Education in Postsecondary Administration. Armando is a popular educator, social entrepreneur and community mobilizer with 15 years of experience working in community with local and international CBO’s, scholars and mobilizers for social and digital transformation.
Research Interests
Armando's research focuses on critical pedagogies, popular education and mobilization, community-based organizations, and sustainable and digital transformation for development in LMICs.
Research Description
My scholarship engages communities in problem-solving and justice-oriented transdisciplinary research to critically examine the effects of digital development on culture, education, and sustainability in Brazilian Favelas and the World.
My dissertation research consists of a five-year Community-based Participatory Research (CBPR) project that resulted in grassroots, popular education initiative for empowering community mobilizers within the Baixada Fluminense region of Rio de Janeiro Brazil favelas, as historically informal communities of power, resistance and cultural production and preservation. This project was conceptualized through the collaborative effort between favela community mobilizers and research partners within a Rio de Janeiro based network of sustainable favela community-based organizations (CBOs) in response to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Education
Ph.D. Candidate in Global Studies in Education - Education Policy, Organization & Leadership Department at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
M.Ed. Postsecondary Education & Student Affairs - Rossier School of Education at University of Southern California
B.A. Global Studies - Latin America & Professional Writing Minor - Department of Global Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara
Grants
Graduate College Dissertation Travel Grant (2025)
Conference Travel Grant (2025)
Awards and Honors
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students (2023, 2024, 2025)
College of Education Dissertation Award (2025)
Forum on the Future of Public Education - (2024)
Lemann Center Graduate Fellow (2021)
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow (2020)
Summer Pre-doctoral Institute Fellow (2019)
Graduate College Illinois Distinguished Fellow (2019-2022)
Courses Taught
Teaching Assistant Appointments:
Social Justice in Education
Education & Globalization
ICT for Education Development in Global Perspective
Learning Technologies
Identity and Difference in Education
Social Justice, School, & Society
Survey Methods
Methods of Education Inquiry
External Links
Open to postdoctoral and research opportunities.