Schmidt, Sandra (ss4146)

Sandra Schmidt

Associate Professor of Social Studies Education
Program Director, Social Studies Education
212-678-3152

Office Location:

420 Zankel Zankel

Office Hours:

SPRING 2024: Drop-in: Wednesday and Thursday3:00 - 4:50 pm

Educational Background

Ph.D.   Michigan State University
M.A.     University of Michigan
B.A.     Swarthmore College

Scholarly Interests

Geography Education, Critical Social Theory in Geography, Civic Education, Social Studies Education, Postcolonial Theory, Gender and Queer Theory

Selected Publications

Journal Articles (Refereed)

Schmidt, S.J. (2015).  The queer arrangement of school: A spatial study of inequity. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 47(2), 253-273.

Schmidt, S.J. (2015).  Decelerating and demystifying the path toward global social studies education.  Theory and Research in Social Education, 43(1), 140-146.

Schmidt, S.J. (2014). Civil rights continued: How history positions young people to contemplate sexuality (in)justice. Equity and Excellence in Education, 47(3), 353-369.

 Schmidt, S.J. (2013) Claiming our turf: Students' civic negotiation of the public space of school. Theory and Research in Social Education.

Schmidt, S.J. & Babits, C. (2013). Occupy Wall Street as a Curriculum of Space. Journal of Social Studies Research.

Schmidt, S.J. (2013). Fabricating a nation: The function of national museums in non-racial re-presentation and the national imagination.  Museum Management and Curatorship, 28(3).

Schmidt, S.J. (2012). Am I a woman?: The production of woman in U.S. History. Gender and Education, 24(7), 707-724.

Schmidt, S.J., Chang, S.P., Carolan-Silva, A., Lockhart, J., Anagnostopoulos, D. (2012). Recognition, responsibility, and risk: Pre-service teachers' framing and reframing of lesbian, gay, and bisexual social justice issues.  Teaching and Teacher Education, 28(8), 1175-1184.

Garrett, H.J. & Schmidt, S.J. (2012). Repeating until we can remember: Difficult (public) knowledge in South Africa. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 28(1), 191-206

Schmidt, S.J. (2011). Who lives on the other side of that boundary: A model of geographic thinking.  Social Education, 75(5), 250-255.

Schmidt, S.J. & Garrett, H.J. (2011). Reconstituting pessimistic discourses. Critical Arts, 25(3), 423-440.

Schmidt, S.J. (2011). Making space for the citizen in geography education. Journal of Geography, 110(3), 107-119.

Schmidt, S.J. (2011). Theorizing place: Students' navigation of place outside the classroom.  Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 27(1), 20-35.

Schmidt, S. J. (2010).  Queering social studies: A query of the space for sexual orientation and identity in the social studies. Theory and Research in Social Education, 38(3), 314-335.

Schmidt, S.J. (2010). Bringing the Other closer to home: Geography education in the post-colonial.  Critical Literacy: Theories and Practices, 4(1), 29-47.

Schmidt, S. (2008). Practicing critical democracy: A perspective from students.  Journal of Curriculum and Instruction, 2(1), 38-54.

Book Chapters

Schmidt, S.J. (2014). United in our diversity': Public museums in the production of a South African nation. In B. Trofanenko & A. Segall (Eds.), Beyond pedagogy: Reconsidering the public purpose of museums(pp. 135-154). Boston: Sense Publishers.

Schmidt, S.J. (2012). Queer geography: A query of norms in the social studies.  In T.W. Kenreich (Ed.), Geography and social justice in the classroom (pgs. 129-149).  New York: Routledge. 

Schmidt, S.J. (2012). Let me in: The impact of divergent discourses on research and curricular (re)formation. In E. Meiners & T. Quinn (Eds.), Sexualities in education. New York: Peter Lang.

Schmidt, S.  (2010). Examining privilege in globalization.  In E. Heilman (Ed.), Social studies and diversity education: What we do and why we do it (pp. 202-206)New York: Routledge.

Schmidt, S.J. (2010). Geography education curriculum.  In C. Kridel, W. Schubert, & M.R. Bull (Eds.), Encyclopedia of curriculum studies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Schmidt, S. (2007). Gender gap: The disjuncture between Western-developed policies and their African-determined implementation.  In R. Maboleka (Ed.), Soaring beyond boundaries: Women breaking educational barriers in traditional societies. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies

National Council for the Social Studies

American Educational Research Association
Division B - Curriculum
Division G - Social Contexts of Education
Queer Studies SIG
Research in Social Studies SIG

Association of American Geographers

Professor Schmidt received her bachelor's degree in political science, economics, and women's studies from Swarthmore College, her M.A. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Michigan, and her Ph.D. in teacher education from Michigan State University.  Prior to obtaining her Ph.D., she taught secondary social studies in Grand Rapids, MI, Corvallis, OR, and Dedza, Malawi.

2012-3 Provost's Investment Fund "Merging Landscapes"
2012    Kipchoge Neftali Kirkland Social Justice Paper Award
2011    Outstanding Paper Award from the AERA Queer Studies SIG
2011    AAUW American Fellow
2008    Michigan State University Excellence-In-Teaching Citation


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