Associate Professor (Teaching) of Sociology (by courtesy)
Director, Master's Programs in International Comparative Education and International Education Policy Analysis
Cross-national analyses of gender, leadership, and higher education, and of representations of women's and children's rights in school textbooks. Also, mothers' aspirations for children in India, education programs for married immigrant women in the Republic of Korea, and understandings of the history of slavery among youth in the United States.
Christine Min Wotipka is Associate Professor (Teaching) of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology and Director of the Master’s Program in International Comparative Education (ICE) and International Education Policy Analysis (IEPA) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She also serves as co-Resident Fellow at the Education and Society Theme (EAST) House. From 2012-2016, she served as Director of the Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford University.
Dr. Wotipka’s research centers around two main themes examined from cross-national and longitudinal approaches. The first relates to the progress and experiences of women in higher education, especially women in faculty and leadership positions. The second is that of citizenship and education. This work explores how social science curricula, in the form of textbooks, has shifted focus away from the development of national identities to ones that emphasize global citizenship in a diverse and multicultural society. In particular, her work examines the inclusion of women, children’s rights, and discussions of gender-based violence into school textbooks over time and around the world. Her articles have appeared in American Journal of Education, Social Forces, Sociology of Education, Feminist Formations, and Comparative Education Review.
In 2010, Dr. Wotipka co-founded the Education and Society Theme (EAST) House – a living-learning space for undergraduates interested in educational research, policy, activism, and teaching. In addition to the applied research methods seminars she leads for the students in the ICE/IEPA master’s program, she also teaches “Education, Gender, and Development,” which is cross-listed in Education; Sociology; and Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.
Dr. Wotipka earned her BA (summa cum laude) in International Relations and French at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, and MA in Sociology and PhD in International Comparative Education at Stanford University. Prior to joining the faculty at Stanford, she was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and a visiting assistant professor/global fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles. Between her undergraduate and graduate studies, she served as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in rural northeast Thailand.
"To understand the country’s stance toward gender issues in formal practice, one may examine its school textbooks. Textbooks play vital roles in efforts to deliver high quality education, particularly with growing emphasis on learning outcomes and skill development in countries around the world (Benavot 2011). Textbook content introduces students to ‘legitimate knowledge’: textbooks reflect the power relations, struggles, and compromises among different classes, races, genders, and religious groups (Apple 1992, 2004). As vital parts of the official curriculum, they also promote a hidden curriculum. Textbooks can be used as highly politicised means of indoctrinating children with specific notions of nationhood and what it means to be a citizen of a particular country at different points in time. As such, textbooks play important roles in giving governments the legitimacy they need from their citizens (Williams 2014) and maintaining the state’s dominant narrative (Brehm 2014). Gender identities, too, are constructed through textbooks (Durrani 2008). Granted, children bring in their own perspectives and values when reading texts and viewing illustrations in school textbooks, but this is less the case in teacher-centred classrooms dependent on textbook materials and for more malleable younger students." - From her paper, "The rise, removal, and return of women: gender representations in primary-level textbooks in Afghanistan, 1980–2010" (with Somaye Sarvarzade, in Comparative Education)
Since 1996
Associate Professor (Teaching) (2010-present)
Assistant Professor (2006-2010)
Visiting Scholar/Assistant Professor (Acting) (2004-2005)
Assistant Professor (Acting) (2001-2003)
Doctoral Student (1996-2001)
Associate Professor (Teaching) of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology (2010-present), Stanford Graduate School of Education
Assistant Professor of Education and (by courtesy) Sociology (2006-2010), Stanford Graduate School of Education
Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2005-2006)
Global Fellow, UCLA International Institute, University of California, Los Angeles (2003-2004)
Director, Master's Program in International Comparative Education, Stanford Graduate School of Education (2001-2003)
Consultant and Associate Director of Programs, MentorNet (2001 & 2004-2005)
English Editor and Writer, Hanwha Group, Republic of Korea (1995-1996)
U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, Thailand (1993-1995)
Current Syllabus: Download PDF
Dr. Wotipka's Select Publications: Google Drive
Sarvarzade, Somaye and Christine Min Wotipka. “The Rise, Removal, and Return of Women: Gender Representations in Primary-Level Textbooks in Afghanistan, 1980–2010.” In press in Comparative Education.
Wotipka, Christine Min, Brenda Jarillo Rabling, Minako Sugawara, and Pumsaran Tongliemnak. 2017. “The Worldwide Expansion of Early Childhood Care and Education, 1985–2010.” American Journal of Education 123, 2: 307–339.
Nakagawa, Mana and Christine Min Wotipka. 2016. “The Worldwide Incorporation of Women and Women’s Rights Discourse in Social Science Textbooks, 1970–2008.” Comparative Education Review 60, 3: 501–529.
Hu, Claire, Christine Min Wotipka, and Wen Wen. 2016. “International Students in Chinese Higher Education: Choices, Expectations, and Experiences by Region of Origin.” Pp. 153-178 in Global Perspectives and Local Challenges Surrounding International Student Mobility. K. Bista and C. Foster (eds.). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Muller, Carol B., Stacy Blake–Beard, Sylvia Barsion, and Christine Min Wotipka. 2012. “Learning from the Experiences of Women of Color in MentorNet’s One–on–One Program.” Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 18, 4: 317–338.
Schrader, Corbin Elizabeth and Christine Min Wotipka. 2011. “History Transformed? Gender in the World War II Narratives in U.S. History Textbooks, 1956-2007.” Feminist Formations 23, 3: 68-88.
Ramirez, Francisco O., John W. Meyer, and Christine Min Wotipka. 2009. “Globalization, Citizenship, and Education: The Rise and Spread of Cosmopolitan, Multicultural, and Individual Empowerment Frames.” Peruvian Education Review 1: 163–180.
Wotipka, Christine Min and Kiyoteru Tsutsui. 2008. “Global Human Rights and State Sovereignty: Nation–States’ Ratifications of International Human Rights Treaties, 1965–2001.” Sociological Forum 23, 4: 724–754.
Wotipka, Christine Min and Francisco O. Ramirez. 2008. “Women’s Studies as a Global Innovation.” Pp. 89–110 in The Worldwide Transformation of Higher Education. D. P. Baker and A. W. Wiseman (eds.). Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI Press. [Best Book Award for 2008–2009, Comparative and International Education Society Higher Education SIG]
Wotipka, Christine Min and Francisco O. Ramirez. 2008. “World Society and Human Rights: An Event History Analysis of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.” Pp. 303–343 in The Global Diffusion of Markets and Democracy. B. A. Simmons, F. Dobbin, and G. Garrett (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wotipka, Christine Min, Francisco O. Ramirez, and Capitolina Díaz Martínez. 2007. “A Transnational Analysis of the Rise and Institutionalization of Women’s Studies.” Revista Española de Sociología 117: 35–59.
Moon, Hyeyoung and Christine Min Wotipka. 2006. “The Worldwide Diffusion of Professional Management Education.” Pp. 121–136 in Globalization and Organization: World Society and Organizational Change. G. S. Drori, J. W. Meyer, and H. Hwang (eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
At Stanford University:
Director, Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (2012-2016) and Faculty Affiliate (2008-present)
Faculty Affiliate, Department of Sociology (2006-present)
Faculty Affiliate, Fellow, and Advisory Board Member, Clayman Institute for Gender Research (2006-present)
Faculty Affiliate, Asian American Studies (2007-present)
Faculty Affiliate, Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (2009-present)
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (2009-present)
Resident Fellow, Education and Society Theme House (2010-present) and East Asian Studies Theme House (2006-2010)
Annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association; American Sociological Association; Comparative and International Education Society; and National Women’s Studies Association
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