Our Provost

Provost Angela Booker

Angela Booker, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Communication was appointed as the inaugural Provost of Eighth College, effective January 3, 2023.

Professor Booker has been a member of the Communication faculty for the last 10 years. Her scholarly work explores the intersection between communication, learning, community engagement, social justice and undoing structural racism. She is co-editor of the book, “Power and Privilege in the Learning Sciences: Critical and Sociocultural Theories of Learning,” with Indigo Esmonde, and has published extensively on the topics of learning theory and technology, civic practice and engagement, and social change. She is an active, long-time member of the Democracy Lab in the Department of Communication and is also the co-director of the Black Studies Project.

In addition to her research and writing, Professor Booker has repeatedly demonstrated her teaching excellence and commitment to students. She has been the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Communication since 2021. An active member of the Thurgood Marshall College faculty, she has served on the executive committee and is the Faculty Director of the Public Service minor. She was selected for the Outstanding Faculty Award by the Black Resource Center and was a Hellman Fellow in 2014-15.

Through the many facets of her work, Professor Booker has demonstrated a deep commitment to student success and the vision of Eighth College and its theme of “Community and Engagement” through which students can develop an understanding of their own identities vis á vis broader communities. Booker’s work in areas including access to math learning as a civil rights issue and her long-time partnership with the Town & Country Learning Center in Southeast San Diego, as well as her research and writing in the areas of social justice, community service and organizing for policy change, and the inclusion of young people in civic participation make her uniquely suited to leading UC San Diego’s newest college.