Dian Mawene

Dian Mawene

Assistant Professor

mawene@wisc.edu

452D Education Building

Dian Mawene

Personal website

My research interests broadly cover these two areas: 

  1. Intersections of race, class, geography, and disability: In my research, I have examined racial disproportionality as an entry point to explore disability intersections. Particularly, I delved into critical geography to understand how space is both a tool and a product of systemic discrimination.
  2. Transformative learning via school-family-community-research partnership: In this strand of research, I explore issues such as power imbalances and the inclusion/exclusion of historically marginalized students, parents, and community members in educational decision-making. I work with local schools to design collaborative spaces that recognize students with and without disabilities from various intersecting identities, along with their families and community members, as experts in identifying both the problems and solutions to educational inequities.

I am accepting doctoral students, particularly those pursuing interdisciplinary approaches.

Education

  • PhD Special Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2021
  • MS Special Education, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 2015
  • B.Ed Teaching, Satya Wacana Christian University, 2008

Select Publications

  • Mawene, D. (2026). From a territorialized to a transformative space: Reimagining inclusive educational decision-making space. Educational Policy, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048261461446
  • Mawene, D., & Schrader, E. (2026). Collective transformative agency: The power of ordinary people to create systemic change. Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 128(2), 130-160. https://doi.org/10.1177/01614681261433290
  • Mawene, D. (2025). Coded words in a demographically changing suburban school district: A critical geography perspective of White spatial imaginary. Whiteness and Education, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1080/23793406.2025.2531831 
  • Cruz, R. A., Mawene, D., Firestone, A. R., Cunningham, M. C., & Johnson, L. J. (2025). Past as prologue: A critical spatial analysis of exclusionary discipline. Behavioral Disorders, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/01987429251382146
  • Mawene, D., Bal, A., Ko, D., Orie, L., Schrader, E., & Yoo, J. (2025). Decolonizing Agency: A framework for an inclusive co-design of behavioral support systems in Indigenous land. Exceptional Children, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00144029251350059
  • Mawene, D., Li, L., Mejia, A., Mella, B., Cass, H. N., Tohuey-Childress, K., & Chandrashekhar, S. (2025). Fostering inclusion: students’ voices in the co-design of a school-district level policy. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603116.2025.2496419. 
  • Mawene, D., Bal, A., Bird Bear, A., Ko, D., Orie, L., & Mayer-Jochimsen, M. (2024). Creating Thirdspace: Indigenous Learning Lab to transform a school discipline system. American Educational Research Journal, 61(4), 842-878. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831224126032
  • Mawene, D., & Bal, A. (2020). Spatial othering: Examining residential areas, school attendance zones, and school discipline in an urbanizing school district. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(91), 1-26. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.4676

Select Presentations

  • Mawene, D. (2023, November). Leveraging the Voice of Local Stakeholders in Addressing Discrimination in a Predominantly White School District. [Roundtable Discussion] American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY.
  • Mawene, D. (2023, November). Reimagining Disability Intervention: Invitation to (first) Address Spatial Injustices. [Paper session] American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Annual Meeting, Louisville, KY.
  • Mawene, D. (2023, April – 2023, April). Code Words: How Othering is Concealed through Institutional Policies and Everyday Discourse. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
  • Mawene, D., Mayer-Jochimsen, M., Bal, A., Ko, D., Bird Bear, A., Orie, L., & Yoo, J. (2023, April – 2023, April). Learning Lab Methodology: Materializing Critical Policy Analysis. Roundtable presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
  • Mawene, D., Bal, A., Bird Bear, A., Ko, D., Orie, L., & Mayer-Jochimsen, M. (2022, April – 2022, April). Creating Thirdspace through Indigenous Learning Lab. Roundtable presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
  • Mawene, D. (2022, April – 2022, April). Spatial othering at the municipal, school district, and school levels: A case from a suburb. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
  • Mawene, D. (2022, February – 2022, March). Spatial Othering: Racial Disproportionality in School Discipline and Special Education. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting, Virtual Meeting.