Farima Pour-Khorshid

Farima Pour-Khorshid is a first-generation Ph.D. and Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco. Her work has been locally, nationally, and internationally situated in her roles as a K-12 teacher, professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant, public intellectual, scholar, and educator-organizer. She has learned from and served within multiple local and national education organizations and is one of the editors, authors, and organizers of, "Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators", a collaboration between various grassroots abolitionist and justice-centered collectives. She’s published several peer-reviewed academic articles and book chapters, delivered over 150 invited keynote addresses, professional presentations, and guest lectures, and contributed to a range of public platforms such as TEDx Talk and National Public Radio (NPR). As such, she received the 40 Under 40 Leadership Award from California State University, East Bay, for her humanizing, healing centered, and abolitionist approaches within and outside the field of education.

• Healing centered engagement
• Abolitionist teaching 
• Racial affinity group approaches for educators
• K-12 ethnic studies pedagogies
• Grassroots teacher organizing

• University of California, Santa Cruz, Ph.D. in Education, Emphasis in Language, Literacy and Culture, 2018
• University of California, Santa Cruz, M.A. in Education, Emphasis in Language, Literacy and Culture, 2015
• California State University, East Bay, M.S. Education, Emphasis in Curriculum and Instruction, 2009
• California State University, East Bay, California State Teacher Credential with English Learner Authorization, 2007
• California State University, East Bay, B.A. in Liberal Studies, Emphasis in Childhood Studies, 2007
• Chabot College, A.A. in Liberal Arts, 2004

• California State University, East Bay 40 Under 40 Award, 2023
• The University of California, Davis Educational Opportunity Program’s Award for Significant Impact on First-Generation Students, 2020
• Outstanding Global Glimpse Educator Award, 2019
• International Award Winning Author for ""No Estas Solo"", Latino Book Award, 2018
• Engaging Scholarship and Activism Award, 2017 Equity Summit
• California Legislature Assembly Certificate of Recognition presented by California Member of the Senate, Bob Weieckowski, District 10, 2016

• Pour-Khorshid, F., Capitelli, S., Hamilton, E., Jenkins, G., Muñoz, G., Wong, K., Anderson, R., and Sitkin, C. (2025). Healing Centered Racial Affinity Groups: Toward Holistic Approaches of Support for Future K-12 Teachers and Teacher Educators. Holistic Education Review Special Issue: Education for Holistic Wellbeing: Exploring intersections and common purpose with social justice and equity.
• Pour-Khorshid, F., Vernon, K., & Shalaby, C. (2023). Visions of Intergenerational Grief Work as Education for Liberation. Journal of Trauma Studies in Education, 2(3), 55-72.
• Regalado, Y., Martell, J., Pour-Khorshid, F., San Pedro, T., Sealey-Ruiz, Y., & Souto-Manning, M. (2023). A Kitchen-Table on Disrupting and Dreaming Beyond the Prescribed Curriculum, Equity & Excellence in Education.
• Sabati, S., Pour-Khorshid, F., Meiners, E. & Hernandez, C. (2022). Dismantle, Change, Build: Lessons for Growing Abolition in Teacher Education,  Teachers College Record, ID Number: 23728.
• Hernandez, C. A., Pour-Khorshid, F., Meiners, E. R., & Sabati, S. (2022). Building Transformative Justice Communities: Why Abolitionist Work in Schools Is, and Must Always be, Feminist 1. In Handbook of Critical Approaches to Politics and Policy of Education (pp. 161-174). Routledge.
• Buenavista, T. L., Cariaga, S., Curammeng, E. R., McGovern, E. R., Pour-Khorshid, F., Stovall, D. O., & Valdez, C. (2021). A Praxis of Critical Race Love: Toward the Abolition of Cisheteropatriarchy and Toxic Masculinity in Educational Justice Formations. Educational Studies, 57(3), 238-249.
• Pour-Khorshid, F. (2020). Teaching to Heal, Healing to Teach: Ethnic Studies as a Healing Endeavor in and out of the Classroom, Planting the Seeds of Equity: Ethnic Studies and Social Justice in the K–2 Classroom,  Teachers College Press.