Andrés Castro Samayoa

Andrés Castro Samayoa is an associate professor and director of the Ph.D. program in higher education at Boston College's Lynch School of Education & Human Development and director for assessment and strategy (by courtesy) at the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions. His empirical and conceptual research explores how students' approaches to navigating colleges and universities can help policymakers and institutional actors appreciate the enduring relevance of racism, sexism, and social differentiation in educational environments. He has co-authored and co-edited books on Minority Serving Institutions and contemporary issues in higher education and his research has received support from The Spencer Foundation, AccessLex/AIR, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, amongst others. Currently, he is co-authoring a book based on a longitudinal qualitative study on Latinx students' pursuit of graduate education in the United States. Andrés is energized when metaphors and lively imagery help readers understand the world anew; his favorite opening sentence is from Gabriel García Márquez's Cien Años de Soledad [One Hundred Years of Solitude]: "Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento, el coronel Aureliano Buendía había de recordar aquella tarde remota en que su padre lo llevó a conocer el hielo" [Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice] (Editorial Sudamericana, 1967).