Sofia Tancredi

DESIGN. MATH. MOVEMENT.

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    2026

    Exploring Researcher Learning with Collaborative Poetics

    International Society of the Learning Sciences in Irvine, CA, June 2026

    Sketch by Nicole Louie of an installation with different objects such as a tree branch and pinboard connected by string, holding assorted words. People are adding paper to the string. The vibe is playful chaos.

    Research can change us, if we let it. This June at the International Society for the Learning Sciences conference at UC Irvine, we (The Mattering Collective) are excited to be building a multimedia interactive poetry installation that will invite researchers to explore the edges of what their research means to them. Drawing on learning sciences scholarship on the embodied, affective, and relational nature of learning, we conceptualize the reciprocal transformation of researcher and research as an intrinsically creative and embodied process, in which affective and cognitive experiences unfold and morph together. We assert that the arts, and poetic processes in particular, have much to offer in helping us grapple with the intricate intertwinement of our emotions, desires, thoughts, values, and goals as researchers. Through collaborative poetic processes of reflexivity, we invite the learning sciences community to strengthen our connections to our own complex humanity, to our research partners and their complex humanity, and to our aspirations for ourselves, our work, and our worlds.

    Will share more information on where and when to find us when we have them!

    2025

    Charting the Learning Sciences Neuroverse

    I’m organizing a symposium at the International Society for the Learning Sciences conference in Helsinki this year on theorizing and building neurodiversity-affirming STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education. It has been special to bring together a group of scholars thinking about neurodivergence across the educational ecosystem, from instructional tools to curricular and teaching decisions to assessment, and to begin to piece together a broader vision for neurodiversity-affirming STEM education. Hope to see you there!

    Simple yellow flyer with abstract light blue scribble designs surrounding the title, timing, presenter headshots, and presentation titles for a conference symposium. At the top, in a dark blue box, it specifies 'hybrid symposium',below which the title states 'Charting the Learning Sciences Neuroverse: Theorizing and Building Neurodiversity-Affirming STEM Education.' Under that, the presentation titles are: 1. Reframing Neurodiversity through Community Cultural Wealth: Enactments and Expansions, Dr.Crystal Menzies, UC–Berkeley. 2. Neurodiversity as a Challenge to Neurotypical Mathematical Assumptions Dr.s Rachel Lambert, Edmund Harriss, UC–Santa Barbara. 3. Creative Potential of Neurodiverse Engineering Students: Insights from the Engineering Creativity Assessment Tool (ECAT), Dr.s Zeynep G Akdemir-Beveridge, Arash Esmaili Zaghi, & Connie Syharat, University of Connecticut, 4. Ecosystems of Belonging: Teaching Assistants’ Influence on Neurodivergent Computer Science Students’ Sense of Belonging, Dr.Rachel Bonnette, University at Buffalo, and 5. Neurodivergent Embodied STEM Learning: Stimming as an Epistemic and Interactional Resource, Dr. Sofia Tancredi, UW–Madison. In the bottom left corner, there is a photo of discussant Katherine Lewis from the University of Washington. In the bottom right corner, it lists the date and time of the event as June 12, 3-4:30pm in Helsinki, Finland at the International Society for the Learning Sciences conference. The event will also be accessible via zoom.

    The Senses and the Higher Ed Classroom

    May 15th, 1:45-2:35pm at Union South

    I’ll be running a workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Teaching and Learning Symposium this year called “Make it Sensational: Instruction that Taps into Students’ Sensorimotor Needs.” Here’s the session description:

    Emerging cognitive sciences research suggests that learning is not just “in the head”: the kinds of bodily interaction experiences we offer students impact how they engage and what they learn. This interactive session will distill key principles and practices from research on “embodied learning” and the senses that can support engaging, inclusive instruction. We’ll cover the prospective role of movement in the classroom, from gesture to large scale movements to fidgeting, and explore demos of embodied learning approaches. 

    Decorative image showing a photo of a lecture hall surrounded by black-and-white icons representing the sensory systems: an eye, and ear, a nose, a mouth, a hand, the vestibular organ (the sense of balance in the inner ear) and a joint (for the sense of body in space, proprioception).

    2024

    Co-Design Day for Neurodiversity-Inclusive Learning

    September 10, 2024, 3-5pm at the University of California, Berkeley

    This event was dreamed up with high schooler and student organization leader Reese Langdon of The College Preparatory School, Oakland. Our goal was to invite neurodiverse high schoolers to get to know researchers studying embodied learning, share about their lived experiences in school, and ultimately, to do some design thinking together. It was a beautiful afternoon of sharing and creativity, brainstorming some wonderful technologies that draw on embodiment theory to inform practical solutions for neurodivergent learners in today’s schools (I really want an Up2Speed pen!)

    Event flyer. Title: Co-Design Day for Neurodiversity-Inclusive Learning. Description: An opportunity for neurodiverse high school students to collaborate with researchers at UC Berkeley to create new learning tools and technologies that make high school learning more inclusive for neurodiverse students. Event details: September 10, 2024, 4-6pm. Embodied Design Research Lab, UC Berkeley, To RSVP please email sofiatancredi@berkeley.edu. The flyer features a rainbow infinity symbol as well as a pink frame with images of a brain, cogs inside a head form, a light bulb, a book, charts, a scribble, and a puzzle.
    Two co-design day participants smile as one expresses an idea using gesture. Another participant's hands reach for colorful clay on the table.
    Two co-design day participants work intently on a paper prototype.

    Learning for Every Body: Intersectional Dimensions of Embodied Learning

    Symposium at the International Society of the Learning Sciences in Buffalo, NY, June 2024

    Morgan Vickery and I met at the American Educational Research Association conference in 2023, and chatted about how we wished there were more cross-talk among people considering different dimensions of embodiment. Within the hour, we’d decided to organize something for the next International Society of the Learning Sciences conference bringing together scholars studying different kinds of bodily diversity and marginalization in learning. Thanks to all who participated and attended- it was an honor to co-chair this session!

    Navy blue flyer with white font showing the title, abstract, and participant list for a conference symposium. There is a decorative graphic of colorful intersecting organic circular shapes in top right. Title: Learning for Every Body: Intersectional Dimensions of Embodied Learning. Abstract: As embodiment research gains popularity within the learning sciences, this symposium both leverages and critiques embodiment perspectives as they reveal the learning of marginalized students. We highlight the manifold ways in which bodies that do not conform, subscribe, or satisfy the imagined, normative ‘ideal’ standard in educational settings—be they racialized, gendered, disabled, indigenous, multilingual, queer, and/or politicized—construct and are constructed within explicitly embodied learning settings. Co-chairs: Sofia Tancredi (UC Berkeley & SFSU) & Morgan Vickery (Indiana University. Discussant: Shirin Vossoughi (Northwestern University).
    List of presenters: Sofia Tancredi, UC Berkeley & San Francisco State University. Christina Krause, University of Graz. Jessica Benally, UC Berkeley. Dionne Champion, University of Florida. Foloshadé Solomon, Framingham State University. Farha Najah Hussain, New York University. Maisie L. Gholson, University of Michigan. Jasmine Y. Ma, New York University. Ananda Marin, UCLA. Lindsay Lindberg, UCLA. Brenda Yvonne Lopez, UCLA. Shivani Davé, UCLA. Morgan Vickery, Indiana University. Nitasha Mathayas, Indiana University.Selena Steinberg, Indiana University. Megan Humburg, Indiana University

    For more information and access to symposium papers, visit criticalbodies.com