Dr. K. Supriya (she/they) is a biology education researcher and an evolutionary biologist. She identifies as a cis, queer, non-disabled South Asian/Indian woman. They care deeply about centering social justice in science education and research, as well as improving scientific teaching and research by drawing upon and honoring a plurality of knowledge systems and cultural practices. They grew up in New Delhi, India and came to the U.S. to pursue a PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago. For her PhD, she studied competition between birds and ants for arthropod prey and nesting spaces in the eastern Himalaya. Over the course of her PhD, she became interested in inclusive pedagogy and the field of education research and went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher in the Biology Education Research lab at Arizona State University. As a postdoctoral researcher, they worked on many different education research projects such as studying how assessments at the undergraduate level, particularly high-stakes exams, contribute to disparities in student grades by social identities; assessing the impact of an intervention i.e. optional exam retakes on grade disparities by social identities; and a needs assessment of students in the online biology degree program. In her role at UCLA, she is working on using data to inform teaching and curricular interventions. At the same time, she takes a “Data Feminism” approach in recognizing the value of both analytical and experiential knowledge, and that data are not neutral and does not tell a story by itself. Supriya is also a member of an activist collective that works on Science and Social Justice called the Free Radicals.
Are you planning an intervention in your classroom that you would like to evaluate?
Consult or Collaborate with Supriya on your education research/scholarship of teaching and learning projects. Please email ksupriya@ceils.ucla.edu or go to https://calendly.com/ksupriya/60min to set up a time to meet.
Ongoing research projects at UCLA
- Evaluating the impact of the Enhanced general chemistry course on student persistence to organic chemistry with chemistry faculty (Dr. Jenny Casey, Dr. Al Courey, Dr. Justin Caram, Dr. Arlene Russell), and CEILS Senior Associate Director, Dr. Shanna Shaked.
- Comparing the impact of courselets to LMS quizzes in the LS 30 course (Math for Life Sciences) with LS 30 faculty (Dr. Jukka Kerannen)
- Assessing the impact of CEILS Becoming an antiracist educator workshop series with CEILS team members (Dr. JoAnn Roberts, Dr. Rachel Kennison, Ms. Jess Gregg)
Teaching and Curriculum Development at UCLA
- Teaching courses in the CIRTL program including GRAD PD 496B: Teaching as Research and GRAD PD 496C: Implementing your Teaching as Research Project.
- Redesigning the EEB 200B course along with EEB graduate students (Berenice Badillo, Brandon Chan, Katie Hannibal, Aidan Howenstine, Hannah Larson, Xochitl Ortiz Ross, Stella Yuan ), CEILS Director Dr. Rachel Kennison and EEB Faculty (Dr. Colin Kremer, Dr. Felipe Zapata) following the Design Justice Principles.
- Facilitating CEILS workshops on Course design and Becoming an anti-racist educator.
- Codesigning workshops for the Becoming an anti-racist educator workshop series on Design Justice and Restorative Justice.
Selected Publications (For a full list of publications, please see my CV below)
Busch, C. A., Supriya, K., Cooper, K. M., & Brownell, S. E. (2022). Unveiling Concealable Stigmatized Identities in Class: The Impact of an Instructor Revealing Her LGBTQ+ Identity to Students in a Large-Enrollment Biology Course. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 21(2), ar37.
Supriya, K., Mead, C., Anbar, A. D., Caulkins, J. L., Collins, J. P., Cooper, K. M., … & Brownell, S. E. (2021). Undergraduate Biology Students Received Higher Grades During COVID-19 but Perceived Negative Effects on Learning. In Frontiers in Education (p. 428).
Barnes, M. E., Supriya, K., Zheng, Y., Roberts, J. A., & Brownell, S. E. (2021). A new measure of students’ perceived conflict between evolution and religion (PCoRE) is a stronger predictor of evolution acceptance than understanding or religiosity. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 20(3), ar42.
Supriya, K., Price, T. D., & Moreau, C. S. 2020 Competition with insectivorous ants as a contributor to low songbird diversity at low elevations in the eastern Himalaya. Ecology and Evolution. 10(10), 4280-4290
Supriya, K., Rowe, M., Price, T. 2019 Trade-offs between pre-copulatory and post-copulatory investment generate positive correlations across species. Behavioral Ecology. 30(2), 341-347