Rebecca Taylor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she directs the Philosophy of Education program. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University (2014), an M.A. in Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies from Universitat Jaume I (2008), and a B.A. with honors in Mathematics and Philosophy from Washington University in St. Louis (2006). Her career includes positions as Assistant Professor of Education at Suffolk University (2019-2020), Postdoctoral Fellow and Director of the Ethically Engaged Leaders Program at Emory University’s Center for Ethics, and Research Associate at Stanford Law School’s Criminal Justice Center, where she focused on college access for justice-involved students. She joined the University of Illinois in 2020 and received the Campus Distinguished Promotion to Associate Professor in 2025.

Taylor utilizes philosophy and philosophically informed mixed methods to investigate ethics and justice in educational policy and practice. Her research specializations encompass epistemic injustice, activism in higher education, philosophy of education, and equity and inclusion. Funded by the Spencer Foundation and the Center for Ethics and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her work appears in leading journals including AERA Open, Teachers College Record, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Philosophy of Education, and Educational Theory. Key publications include the co-edited book Ethics in Higher Education: Promoting Equity and Inclusion through Case-Based Inquiry (Harvard Education Press, 2021), which received a Choice Outstanding Academic Title award in 2022; “Epistemic Carcerality and Resistance in Higher Education” (AERA Open, 2025, co-authored); “Personalized Learning with AI Tutors: Assessing and Advancing Epistemic Trustworthiness” (Educational Theory, 2025, co-authored); and “Seventy-Five Years of Educational Theory: Foundations and Futures” (Educational Theory, 2026). Previously Chair of the Philosophical Studies in Education SIG for the American Educational Research Association, she now serves as Editor of Educational Theory. Additional honors include the National Academy of Education/Spencer Research Development Award (2020).

Professional Email: rmt@illinois.edu