Dr. Crystena Parker-Shandal is an Associate Professor in Social Development Studies at Renison
University College at the University of Waterloo. Dr. Parker-Shandal’s research expertise is in
curriculum and pedagogy, restorative justice in education, conflict resolution, inclusion,
antiracism, peacebuilding, and dialogue in diverse global communities. She examines issues such
as how peacebuilding education and conflict dialogue processes could work to foster a sense of
inclusion for marginalized children and youth and how such practices, in their successful
implementation, can challenge young people to engage in authentic dialogue and conflict
learning. She is the author of Restorative Justice in the Classroom: Liberating Students’ Voices
through Relational Pedagogy (2022) and Peacebuilding, Citizenship, and Identity: Empowering
Conflict and Dialogue in Multicultural Classrooms (2016). She is co-editor of Finding Refuge in
Canada: Narratives of Dislocation (2021) and editor of First-Gen Docs: Personal, Political, and
Intellectual Perspectives From the First-Generation Doctoral Experience (2024). For more
about her work, visit: https://www.drparkershandal.com
