{"id":23992,"date":"2025-07-18T14:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T14:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/?p=23992"},"modified":"2025-08-19T16:43:55","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T16:43:55","slug":"uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/","title":{"rendered":"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”||4px|||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_3,1_3″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” admin_label=”Text” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

Christopher Thomas<\/span><\/a>, assistant professor of educational leadership and policy in the College of Education, has been named a recipient of the <\/span>NAEd\/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship<\/span><\/a> for 2025.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am so humbled to receive this fellowship,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cIt’s both a recognition of the work I’ve done and a testament to the importance of the research I’m doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas joins three other University of Florida faculty members who have previously received this fellowship. They include Damon Clark, assistant professor in the Department of Economics from 2005 to 2011; Pengefi Zhao, associate professor of qualitative research and methodology from 2019 to 2023; and F. Chris Curran, associate professor of educational leadership and policy and director of the Education Policy Research Center.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas\u2019s research focuses on elementary students’ First Amendment rights in public schools. He draws on his passion for democracy and education.<\/span><\/p>\n

He focused on this topic because \u201cmost of the existing scholarship and even judicial opinions focus primarily on older students, but a few court cases have taken views of young students’ speech rights that are incomplete and problematic.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/07\/Chris-Thomas.jpg” alt=”Headshot of assistant professor Chris Thomas” title_text=”Chris Thomas” align=”center” _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_divider color=”#CC4927″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”-8px||-10px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” text_line_height=”0.6em” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

Chris Thomas, Ph.D<\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”15px||||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.24.0″ _module_preset=”default” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n

He is also the author of <\/span>Reclaiming Democratic Education: Student and Teacher Activism and the Future of Education Policy<\/span><\/a>, which examines student and teacher activism and its impact on the understanding and implementation of students’ First Amendment rights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like the perfect topic to explore in order to inform how courts and educators realize the democratic aims of education in the elementary school context,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a recipient of the NAEd\/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Thomas was awarded $70,000 to support his research.<\/span><\/p>\n

[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":24008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards"],"yoast_head":"\nUF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UF.COE\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-18T14:10:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-19T16:43:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/07\/CThomas-SpencerAward-1-WP-Card-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"633\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"siennacarnochan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UF_COE\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UF_COE\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"siennacarnochan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/\",\"name\":\"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship - News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-18T14:10:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-19T16:43:55+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#\/schema\/person\/43b2cc597945b5719a61917e2b6de8d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#\/schema\/person\/43b2cc597945b5719a61917e2b6de8d0\",\"name\":\"siennacarnochan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f589b0a6dbdef79fe6e380bb5d9ab88a0c1663bd2e41fc5b8d3940d889c5986e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f589b0a6dbdef79fe6e380bb5d9ab88a0c1663bd2e41fc5b8d3940d889c5986e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"siennacarnochan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/author\/siennacarnochan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship - News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship","og_url":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/","og_site_name":"News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UF.COE\/","article_published_time":"2025-07-18T14:10:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-19T16:43:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":633,"url":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/files\/2025\/07\/CThomas-SpencerAward-1-WP-Card-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"siennacarnochan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UF_COE","twitter_site":"@UF_COE","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"siennacarnochan","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/","url":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/","name":"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship - News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-07-18T14:10:17+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-19T16:43:55+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#\/schema\/person\/43b2cc597945b5719a61917e2b6de8d0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/2025\/07\/18\/uf-assistant-professor-chris-thomas-awarded-with-spencer-postdoctoral-fellowship\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UF Assistant Professor Chris Thomas awarded with Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#website","url":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/","name":"News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#\/schema\/person\/43b2cc597945b5719a61917e2b6de8d0","name":"siennacarnochan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news-1\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f589b0a6dbdef79fe6e380bb5d9ab88a0c1663bd2e41fc5b8d3940d889c5986e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f589b0a6dbdef79fe6e380bb5d9ab88a0c1663bd2e41fc5b8d3940d889c5986e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"siennacarnochan"},"url":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/author\/siennacarnochan\/"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23992"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24012,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23992\/revisions\/24012"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}