Nora Reikosky

Nora Reikosky is a joint PhD candidate in education and political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship considers the role of wealthy, private plutocratic actors—like philanthropists and philanthropic corporations—in shaping the priorities and purposes of public education. Her dissertation project, For (y)our future: plutocracy and the vocationalization of education, works to reveal the stakes of increasing entanglement between private actors and public education as an urgent political issue, where the loud voices of powerful and wealthy actors dominate political discourse through philanthropic action and policy advocacy, shaping educational priorities to serve their own purposes and interests. Using approaches from political theory, American Political Development, American Political Economy, and critical discourse analysis, her work explores the coalition of state and private actors who collaborate to implement and strengthen a schooling for work agenda through political projects like philanthropically and corporate funded computer science education.