Milad Mohebali

Assistant Professor

Department of Educational Administration University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Address: TEAC 128
Lincoln NE 68588-0360
Phone: 402-472-3726 On-campus 2-3726
Email: mmohebali2@unl.edu

Dr. Mohebali is a material scientist, educator, and humanist. His interdisciplinary research broadly focuses on social justice in education and decolonization. Originally from Iran, he studies how systems of oppression operate locally, nationally, and globally through higher education with the goal of disrupting dynamics of power across contexts. Milad draws from a wide range of methodologies, data sources, and theoretical perspectives in his three strands of research:1) He examines how racism and coloniality function in higher education as an institution. He approaches this work by drawing and contributing to the sociology of higher education. 2) He investigates the experiences of material hardship and precarity among college students with the goal of informing policy and practice. 3) He studies difficult dialogues around systems of oppression and how such dialogue can create belonging beyond colonized ways of being.

Watch Mohebali Faculty Profile Video

Education

Ph.D., Educational Policy and Leadership Studies, University of Iowa, 2022
Graduate Certificate, Gender, Women’s, & Sexuality Studies, University of Iowa, 2022
M.S., Higher Education Administration, Oklahoma State University, 2017
M.S., Materials Science and Engineering, K. N. Toosi University of Technology, 2010
B.S., Metallurgical Engineering, Amirkabir Univeristy of Technology, 2008

Areas of Expertise

Knowledge/Power in Higher Education
Basic Needs Insecurity
Difficult Dialogues
Sociology of Higher Education
Critical Qualitative Methods

Teaching and Advising

Dr. Mohebali teaches classes in Ed.D. and Ph.D. programs, as well as the M.A. in Higher Education Administration program. He advises doctoral students in Educational Administration. Dr. Mohebali’s goal as an educator is to be with the students and to create trusting and inclusive environments where students can learn across difference and in community to become more like who they are and reach their full potential as critical thinkers and leaders.

Select Publications

Broton, K. M., Mohebali, M., & Goldrick-Rab, S. (2023). Does food matter for college success? The causal impact of meal vouchers on academic attainment. Educational Researcher, 52(3), 155-163.
Mohebali., M. & Stroup, N. R. (2022). Theorising technology in higher education internationalisation using deep mediatisation, actor-network theory, and assemblage thinking. Globalisation, Societies and Education. Advance online publication.
Mohebali, M. (2022). What can COVID-19 pandemic reveal about public purpose of a university? A case study. New Directions in Higher Education, 2022(199), 9-25.
Broton, K. M., Mohebali, M., & Lingo, M. (2022). Basic needs insecurity and mental health: Community college students’ dual challenges and use of social support. Community College Review 50(4), 456-482.
Watt, S. K., Mahatmya, D., Mohebali, M., & Martin-Stanley II, C. (Eds.). (2022). The theory of Being: Practices for transforming self and communities across difference. Routledge.
Broton, K. M., Mohebali, M., & Goldrick-Rab, S. (2022). Deconstructing assumptions about college students with basic needs insecurity: Insights from a meal voucher program. Journal of College Student Development 63(2), 229-234.

Current Interests, Projects and Engagement

Dr. Mohebali is currently working on a research project on the construction of (un)belonging at college using situational analysis.

Courses Taught

EDAD 830: Administrative Theory in Educational Organizations