Susan Finley

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

Dr. 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. She is creator and director of Vancouver’s At Home at School program.

Recent accomplishments

• Finley, S. (June, 2011). Ecoaesthetics: Green arts at the intersection of education and social transformation. Cultural Studies—Critical Methodologies, 11 (3), 306-313.
• 2011 Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award, Washington State University
• 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