Ben Kirshner

Ben Kirshner began his educational career in a youth program in San Francisco’s Mission District and has since developed a research agenda focused on empowering marginalized youth through partnerships with educational settings. His projects include design-based research with action civics teachers, intergenerational participatory research, and ethnographies of community-based youth organizing. Notably, in a study funded by the Spencer Foundation, he collaborated with secondary school teachers to create opportunities for students to discuss and address educational barriers like unsafe school climates and inadequate facilities. Currently, through his work with CU Engage, Ben aims to establish sustainable university-community research partnerships that tackle persistent public challenges and enhance education systems. His 2015 book, Youth Activism in an Era of Education Inequality, won the Social Policy award for Best Authored Book from the Society of Research on Adolescence.