Our Faculty & Staff

Karen L. Biraimah, Ph.D. Professor and Department Chair Educational Studies Office: ED 209-B Phone: 407-823-2428 Email: biraimah@mail.ucf.edu

Karen Biraimah is a tenured Professor of Education and Chair of the Department of Educational Studies. Her academic and research interests focus on issues of educational equity based on factors of race, ethnicity, class, and gender within the context of comparative and international education. Dr. Biraimah teaches graduate courses focused on critical pedagogy, social and multicultural foundations, and comparative education, and she coordinates the Global and Comparative Education Graduate Certificate. Dr. Biraimah holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education, two master’s degrees in Educational Foundations and African Area Studies, and a bachelor's degree in International Studies. She began her career in education as a Peace Corps Volunteer Teacher in Ghana, West Africa, followed by twelve years as a teacher of mathematics and social studies in the public high schools of Niagara Falls, New York and Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Biraimah has been on the faculty of the University of Central Florida for 24 years. She has also been a faculty member at the University of Ife, Nigeria, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Malaya, Malaysia and Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Biraimah was Project Director and Principal Investigator for two Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad Projects (Malaysia/Singapore and Peru), and was Project Director and Principal Investigator for a three-year USAID Tertiary Education Linkage Grant with Vista University in Pretoria, South Africa. She has been a consultant for the U.S. High Commission for Refugees, and for a USAID project in South Africa focused on women's education. Dr. Biraimah is Past-President of the Comparative and International Education Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Congress of Comparative Education. She serves on the Editorial Board of the Comparative Education Review and reviews manuscripts for the Journal of Negro Education and the International Journal of Educational Development. Dr. Biraimah has presented more than 100 papers at professional conferences in addition to publishing nine books, 16 book chapters, and 28 journal articles.