From Irvine to Italy: SoE Faculty and Students Earn Global Honors

By Rachel Sampson
September 22, 2025

Big news from our research community this summer: Associate Professor Nia Nixon and Ph.D. student Seehee Park both brought home international recognition—shining a spotlight on the School of Education across two major conferences. 

At the Society for Text and Discourse conference in July, Professor Nixon received the Tom Trabasso Young Investigator Award, which celebrates early-career scholars making significant contributions to the field. “This recognition means a lot, as it comes from a scholarly community that has deeply shaped and inspired my work,” Nixon shared.

Her impact is also going global: Nixon was named a Distinguished International Professor by the University of Tübingen in Germany. The appointment opens doors for new international collaborations and mentorship opportunities in education sciences and psychology.

Meanwhile, halfway across Europe in Palermo, Ph.D. student Seehee Park—mentored by Nixon—took the stage at the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2025). Her team’s paper, Discourse to Dynamics: Understanding Team Interactions through Temporally Sensitive NLP, earned the Best Paper Award. Park reflected: “I’m truly honored to receive this recognition and deeply grateful to my advisor, Nia, for her constant support and guidance. This inspires me to keep pushing boundaries in research and to make a meaningful impact in the field.”

Nia Nixon (right)

Together, these achievements highlight what makes the School of Education special: faculty and students pushing the boundaries of research, lifting each other up, and making waves far beyond Irvine.