Cathryn van Kessel, Ph.D.

Cathryn van Kessel is an associate professor of curriculum studies, and is a former secondary social studies and Latin teacher from Canada. Her research focuses on how different conceptualizations of evil function in the context of education within and beyond the classroom, with a keen interest in youth conceptualizations as well as a variety of understandings from philosophy, psychology, and social theory. She is particularly enthusiastic about interpretations of evil that implicate ordinary people to uplift pursuits of justice. Toward this end, she finds it helpful to put evil in conversation with concepts like radical love as well as in relation to existentialism, decolonial options, and posthuman theories.

Dr. van Kessel currently serves as an associate editor for Canadian Social Studies.

Education

Ph.D., Curriculum Studies & Social Studies
University of Alberta
2016 

B.Ed., Secondary Social Studies
University of British Columbia
2005

M.A., Ancient Culture, Religion, and Ethnicity
University of British Columbia
2004

B.A. (Honours), Classical Studies
University of British Columbia
2000

Academic Areas

• Curriculum Studies
• Curriculum Theory
• Philosophy in/of Education
• Social Studies Education
• Teacher Education
  

Research Areas

• Conceptualizations of evil
• Media Education
• Teaching Contested Issues
• Teaching about/amid death and existential anxiety

Selected Publications

van Kessel, C., Righton, K., Lester, L., Schimel, J., Hussain, Z., & Lindell, C. (2024). Tools to increase preservice teacher confidence while discussing controversial identity issues. Texas Education Review, 12(2), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/51994

 van Kessel, C. (2024). Studying evil in social studies. In E. W. Ross (ed.), The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems, and possibilities (5^th ed, pp. 279–295). SUNY Press.

van Kessel, C. (2024). How hyperreality morphs social studies inquires. In B. A. Varga & E. C. Adams (Eds.), The theory-story reader for social studies (pp. 106–113). Teachers College Press.

van Kessel, C., & Edmondson, K. (Eds.). (2024). Teaching villainification in social studies: Pedagogies to deepen understanding of social evils. Teachers College Press.

Adeniji, D., McQueen, M., & van Kessel, C. (2024). Wanda the villain? How WandaVision Can Aid Discussions about Enslavement and Anti-Black racism. In C. van Kessel & K. Edmondson (eds.), Teaching villainification in social studies: Pedagogies to deepen understanding of social evils (pp. 111–123). Teachers College Press.

Clark, C. H., & van Kessel, C. (2024). “I, for one, welcome our new computer overlords”: Using artificial intelligence as a lesson planning resource for social studies. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 24(2), n.p. https://citejournal.org/volume-24/issue-2-24/social-studies/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-computer-overlords-using-artificial-intelligence-as-a-lesson-planning-resource-for-social-studies

van Kessel, C., Jones, K., Plots, R., Edmondson, K., Teo, A. (2024). High school social studies teachers and their tactics for justice. Critical Education, 15(1), 52–73. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v15i1.186783

Varga, B. A., & van Kessel, C. (2023). Material and affective (re)shapings within unspeakable/uninterrupted territories of violence. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 38(2), 48–64. https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/1107

Deschenes, S., & van Kessel, C. (2023). Moral distress and nursing education: Curricular and pedagogical strategies for a complex phenomenon. Health Care Analysis. Advanced Online Publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-023-00468-6

Lindell, C., & van Kessel, C. (2023). Considering a lack of elementary social studies as an evil of thoughtlessness. The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal, 3(1), 32–38. https://www.mcssmi.org/resources/Documents/Great%20Lakes%20Social%20Studies%20Journal/GLSSJV3I1.pdf

van Kessel, C. (2023). Unsettling the ‘social’ in social studies. In B. A. Varga, T. Monreal, & R. C. Christ (Eds.), Toward a stranger & more posthuman social studies (pp. 35–37). Teachers College Press.

Krutka, D. G., Heath, M. K, & van Kessel, C. (2022). “I know more than the ‘scietists’”: Selecting media education approaches for the moment. Social Education, 86(6), 398-401. https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/86/6  

van Kessel, C. (2022). Deindividualizing evil and good in social education. Social Education, 86(5), 347–354. https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/86/5 

Varga, B. A., Helmsing, M. E., van Kessel, C., & Christ, R. C. (2022). Snatching bodies, snatching history/ies: Exhuming the insidious plundering of Black cemeteries as a curriculum of postmortem racism. Equity & Excellence in Education, 55(3), 283-295. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2022.2132190 

Varga, B. A., Helmsing, M. E., van Kessel, C., & Christ, R. C. (2023). Theorizing necropolitics in social studies education. Theory and Research in Social Education, 51(1), 47-71. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2022.2129536 

Clark, C. H., & van Kessel, C. (2022). Developing students’ moral and ethical thinking through scenarios reasoning. Social Education, 86(4), 272–277. https://www.socialstudies.org/social-education/86/4 

van Kessel, C., Jacobs, N., Catena, F., & Edmondson, K. (2022). Responding to worldview threats in the classroom: An exploratory study of preservice teachers. Journal of Teacher Education, 73(1), 97–109. https://doi.org/10.1177/00224871211051991 

van Kessel, C. (2022). Educational (im)possibilities during the Necrocene: Ontological (in)securities and an ahumanist existentialism? In j. jagodzinski & j. beier (Eds.), Ahuman pedagogy: A manifesto from the outside (pp. 55–75). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94720-0_4 

van Kessel, C. (2022). Psychosocial approaches to media education. Civics of Technology. https://www.civicsoftechnology.org/pyschosocialapproach 

Varga, B. A., & van Kessel, C. (2021). Ma(r)king the unthinkable: Cultural and existential engagements of extreme historical violence. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 36(2), 16–31. https://journal.jctonline.org/index.php/jct/article/view/985 

Varga, B. A., van Kessel, C., & Helmsing, M. E. (2021). Engaging with the death & memorialization of socially significant public figures in social studies education. Oregon Journal of the Social Studies, 9(1), 73–83. https://sites.google.com/site/oregoncouncilforsocialstudies/O-J-S-S/o-j-s-s-issues 

Varga, B. A., van Kessel, C., Helmsing, M. E., & Christ, R. C. (2021). Hello from the other side: Breathing life into death and grief with/in the context of social studies education. Iowa Journal for the Social Studies, 29(2), 8-29. https://iowasocialstudies.org/resources/Documents/IJSS%20Summer%202021%2029(2).pdf#page=8 

Jacobs, N., van Kessel, C., & Varga, B. A. (2021). Existential considerations to disrupt rigid thinking in social studies classrooms. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 20(1), 51–65. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/taboo/vol20/iss1/4/ 

Ward, J., Watson, E., & van Kessel, C. (2021). Embracing the pivot: Engaging wahkohtowin in building anti-racist learning communities. In J. Davis & C. Irish (Eds.), Lessons from the pivot: Higher education’s response to the pandemic (13–21). University of Mary Washington. https://scholar.umw.edu/education/11 

Burke, K., & van Kessel, C. (2021). Thinking educational controversies through evil and prophetic indictment: Conversation versus conversion. Educational Philosophy and Theory 53(1), 90–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2020.1767072

Varga, B. A., Saleh, M., & van Kessel, C. (2021). Guest Editors’ Introduction to the Special Issue: Echoes of Terror(ism): International Contemplations and Reflections on 9/11. Canadian Social Studies, 52(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.29173/css28 

van Kessel, C. (2021). Covid-19 as a symptom of another disease. In W. Journell (Ed.), Post-pandemic social studies: How Covid-19 changed the world and how we teach (pp. 125–136). Teachers College Press. https://www.tcpress.com/post-pandemic-social-studies-9780807766255

Christ, R. C., Varga, B. A., Helmsing, M. E., & van Kessel, C. (2021). Teaching heavy matters: Situating Covid-19 within the context of death and grief. In W. Journell (Ed.), Post-pandemic social studies: How Covid-19 changed the world and how we teach (pp. 28–40). Teachers College Press.  https://www.tcpress.com/post-pandemic-social-studies-9780807766255

van Kessel, C., & Saleh, M. (2020). Fighting the plague: “Difficult” knowledge as sirens’ song in teacher education. Journal of Curriculum Studies Research, 2(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.7

van Kessel, C. (2020). Teaching the climate crisis: Existential considerations. Journal of Curriculum Studies Research, 2(1), 129–145. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.8

van Kessel, C. (2020). Resistance is not futile: Badiou, simulacrum, and a story from the Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 17(2), 38–50. https://jcacs.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/jcacs/article/view/40361/36448

van Kessel, C., Dalman, J., Saleh, M., Horneland, D., Boucher, K., & Scratch, D. (2020). Organizing with radical love: Towards equity and social justice education in Alberta. Our Schools/Our Selves: The Voice of Progressive Education in Canada, Summer/Fall, 32-35. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2020/06/OSOS-Summer2020.pdf

Helmsing, M. E., & van Kessel, C. (2020). Critical corpse studies: Engaging with corporeality and mortality in curriculum. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, 19(3), 140–164. https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/taboo/vol19/iss3/10 

van Kessel, C., den Heyer, K., & Schimel, J. (2020). Terror management theory and the educational situation. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 52(3), 428–442. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1659416

van Kessel, C. (2019). An education in evil: Implications for curriculum, pedagogy, and beyond. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16605-2

van Kessel, C., & Kline, K. (2019). “If you can’t tell, does it matter?”: Westworld, the murder of the real, and 21st century schooling. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 16(2), 196–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/15505170.2018.1542358 

van Kessel, C., & Plots, R. (2019). A textbook study in villainification: The need to renovate our depictions of villains. One World in Dialogue, 5(1), 21–31. https://ssc.teachers.ab.ca/publications/Pages/OneWorldInDialogue.aspx

van Kessel, C., & Burke, K. (2018). Teaching as immortality project: Positing weakness in response to terror. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 52(2), 216–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12301 

van Kessel, C. (2018). Banal and fetishized evil: Implicating ordinary folk in genocide education. Journal of International Social Studies, 8(2), 160–171. http://www.iajiss.org/index.php/iajiss/article/view/377

van Kessel, C. (2018). Passwords to citizenship? A response to the power, authority, and governance section. In D. G. Krutka, A. McMahon Whitlock, & M. Helmsing (Eds.), Keywords in the social studies: Concepts and conversations (pp. 231–233). Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/b13499

van Kessel, C. (2017). A phenomenographic study of youth conceptualizations of evil: Order-words and the politics of evil. Canadian Journal of Education, 40(4), 576–602. http://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/3105

van Kessel, C., & Crowley, R. M. (2017). Villainification and evil in social studies education. Theory & Research in Social Education, 95(4), 427–455. https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2017.1285734 

van Kessel, C. (2016). The transparency of evil in The Leftovers and its implications for student (dis)engagement. Educational Studies, 52(1), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2015.1120206 

den Heyer, K., & van Kessel, C. (2015). Evil, agency, and citizenship education. McGill Journal of Education, 50(1), 1–18. http://mje.mcgill.ca/article/view/9166/7035