Research interests
Susan Finley's interests include educational issues
associated with economic poverty and homelessness,
diversity, and ways of understanding and being in the
world. She also researches alternative approaches to
curriculum and instruction that improve educational
access for all students. Her inquiry takes its forms in
arts-based research, life histories, and narratives.
Teaching/professional interests
Susan Finley teaches across the undergraduate, masters
in teaching, and education masters programs in the
College of Education. Her courses in these areas
include Diversity, Diversity Field Experience, Social
Contexts, Research Methods, Arts-Based Educational
Research, Multicultural Education in a Global Society,
Advanced Children's Literature, and Globalization of
Homelessness and Poverty. She also participates in the
University Honors Lecture Series.
Recent accomplishments
- Finley, S. (2003). The faces of dignity: Rethinking
the politics of homelessness and poverty in America.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in
Education,16 (4), 501-523.
- Finley, S. (2003). Arts-based inquiry in QI: Seven
years from crisis to guerrilla warfare. Qualitative
Inquiry, 9 (2), 281-296.
- Finley, S. (2005). Arts-based inquiry: Performing
revolutionary pedagogy. In N. K. Denzin and Y. S.
Lincoln (Eds.). Handbook of Qualitative Inquiry, 3rd
edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Street Rat, an ethnodrama adapted from the research
and poetry on homeless youth by Susan Finley and
Macklin Finley. Adaptation by J. Saldana, S. Finley,
and M. Finley Performed April 7 and April 8, 2004,
Prism Theater, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ.
- Saldana, J., Finley, S, & Finley, M.
(2005)."Street Rat.” In J. Saldana (Ed.)
Ethnodrama: An Anthology of Reality Theater; pp.
139-179.
Educational background
- Ph.D Education, University of Michigan, 1998
- M.A. Educational Leadership, Eastern Michigan
University, 1990
- A.B. (with honors), English Literature and
Philosophy, University of Michigan, 1981
