Skip to main content
College of Education

Dr. Gavin Weiser

associate professor
Educational Admin& Foundations
Office
DEG Degarmo Hall 331
Office Hours

By appointment
Office Phone
(309) 438-5422office
phone
Email
smweis1@ilstu.eduemail
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Research

Biography

S. Gavin Weiser is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Administration and Foundations and coordinator of the College Student Personnel Administration master's program. Gavin is also core faculty at ISU in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies as well as affiliated faculty with Latin American/Latino/a Studies.They also also currently serve as the interim director of the graduate school. Gavin earned their Ph.D. in Foundations of Education & Inquiry from the University of South Carolina’s College of Education. Beyond this,they also completed a graduate certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina. Gavin worked for several years as a university administrator in the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at Carolina focusing on social justice and diversity work. Prior to this Gavin was an outdoor educator for Princeton University, leading youth on backpacking and other outdoor adventure activities.

Current Courses

EAF 463.001 College Students & Their Cultures

EAF 413.001 Critical Social Theory & Resistant Knowledge Projects

EAF 599.008 Dissertation Research

EAF 599.008 Dissertation Research

EAF 464.001 Practicum In College Student Personnel Administration

EAF 415.001 Qualitative Research In Educational Settings

EAF 228.013 Social Foundations Of Education

EAF 428.001 Topics In Educational Foundations: College Student Personnel

Teaching Interests & Areas

Bridging the practitioner/researcher divide. Bringing arts-based educational research methods into the classroom.

Research Interests & Areas

Identity, Agency, & Social Movements, Sociology of Education, Ethics of qualitative research, Activism within and beyond the academy, critical university studies

Ph D Educational Foundations & Inquiry

University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC

Other Women & Gender Studies

University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC

MA Higher Education & Student Affairs

University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC

BA Interdisciplinary Humanities

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

Outstanding College Researcher Award

College of Education
2023

College of Education Outstanding Teacher Award

College of Education
2023

Outstanding College of Education Service Award

College of Education
2022

Emerging Faculty Leader Academy

NASPA
2021

Engaged Scholar Initiative

Campus Compact
2021

STAR Award - Promotion of Diversity

ISU Division of Student Affairs
2021

Profile of Social Change

Florida State University - Center for Leadership & Social Justice
2015

Communal Support Award

Progressive Black Men, Inc
2007

Servant Leader Award

Tau Kappa Epsilon
2007

Book, Chapter

Weiser, G., DeMartino, L., Bushchman, P. (2024). Towns & Gowns: A Study in Crisis Leadership. In Reardon, J. & Leonard, J. (Eds.) Volume X: Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Education: School-University-Community Research. Information Age Publishing
Weiser, G., Dennie, T., & Jallas, M. (2024) Hitting the Books: Scholars and Practitioners Partnering for Intersectional Education. In Mitchell, D. (Ed). Intersectionality and Higher Education: Theory, Research, and Practice (3rd ed.). Peter Lang.
DeMartino, L., & Weiser, S. G. (2022). The Desert Flowers Always Bloom Following the Monsoon: Activism, School Boards, and COVID-19. In S. McCarther (Ed.), Snapshots of History: Portraits of the 21st Century Pandemic. Information Age Publishing. https://www.infoagepub.com/products/Snapshots-of-History
Weiser, S. G., & DeMartino, L. (2022). Scholar Participant Phantasmagoria: A Creative Reflection on Research Under Crisis. In K. Lewis, K. Banda, M. Briseno, & E. Weber (Eds.), The Kaleidoscope of Lived Curricula: Learning Through a Confluence of Crises 13th Annual Curriculum & Pedagogy Group 2021 Edited Collection. Information Age Publishing.
Weiser, S. G., Stasicky, A., Jones, C., & Lynch, M. (2022). Sexual Identity Development Among College
Students. In N. Zhang, P. McCluskey-Titus, & T. Cawthon (Eds.), Theory of College Student Development: Integration of Knowledge, Skills, and Application. Charles C Thomas Pub LTD.

Journal Article

DeMartino, L., & Weiser, G. (2025). Flying a plane, while also building the plane in the air: A covid-19 composite narrative for educational re/newal. American Journal of Qualitative Research, 9(1), 219–235. https://doi.org/10.29333/ajqr/16031
DeMartino, L., & Weiser, S. G. (2025). Fierce love and resistance: LGBTQIA2S+ youth thriving in the in-between spaces. International Journal of Human Rights Education, 9(1). https://repository.usfca.edu/ijhre/vol9/iss1/9
DeMartino, L., Weiser, S. G., & Stasicky, L. (2025). Everything is fine: Converging pandemics, resistance,
And sustaining wokeness in education. Social Alternatives, 43(1), 32–41.
Weiser, S. G., & DeMartino, L. (2025). Reproductive futurity: Policy, pop-culture, and praxis. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 47(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2025.2450579
Wagner, T. L., & Weiser, S. G. (2023). Queer digital forensics as methodology for documenting queer culture at higher education institutions. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 12(4), 102–132. https://doi.org/10.1525/dcqr.2023.12.4.102

Presentations


DeMartino, L. and Weiser, S. G. (2021, April). The educational administrative response to COVID-19 in the United States: A phenomenological study transitioned to photovoice [Individual Paper/Symposium]. Comparative and International Education Society, Virtual.

DeMartino, L. and Weiser, S. G. (2021, April). The educational administrative response to COVID-19 in the United States: A phenomenological study transitioned to photovoice [Individual Paper/Symposium]. Comparative and International Education Society, Virtual.
Are Saturdays Still for the Boys?: Old Row, Social Media, and the Persistence of Normativity in Southern Universities. Social Media & Society Conference. Social Media & Society. (2020)
Artsmatter: More than Human in Arts-Based-Research. ICQI. (2020)
Photovoice Methods as a Means of Accessing Educational Justice. NASPA. NASPA. (2020)
Photovoice as Method for Teaching Methods. ICQI. (2020)
Queer Subjects, Queer Representations, Queer Resistance to the MAGAstream. SIUE Symposium on Women and Gender. SIUE. (2020)
Saturdays for the Boys?: Higher Education, Social Media, & Bodies that Belong. American Educational Studies Association. American Educational Studies Association. (2020)
Affective Relationality & More Than Human Activist Research. AESA. (2019)
It’s Time for Arts & Resistance! College-aged Artistic Activism. National Women's Studies Association. NWSA. (2019)

Grants & Contracts

Building Sense of Belonging, Community, and Leadership Capacity of LGBTQIA2S+ Youth in the Midwest. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2022)
Community Engagement Learning Grant. Center for Civic Engagement. Illinois State University. (2021)
Portrait of a Pandemic. NASPA Region IV-East. Private. (2021)
New Faculty University Research Grant. Illinois State University. Illinois State University. (2019)
Graduate Civic Scholar. University of South Carolina. Other. (2016)

Additional Links

Departments, Schools, and Units

University Resources