Ananda Marin is an associate professor of Qualitative Research Methods in Education in the Department of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Education & Information Studies. She also serves as Vice Chair of Graduate Education and as faculty in American Indian Studies. Marin holds a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences from Northwestern University (2013), a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (2002), and a B.A. in Sociology from Yale University (1998). Her career includes a postdoctoral fellowship and lecturing at Northwestern University (2013-2016), administrative positions at City Colleges of Chicago (2002-2008), and roles at the Chicago Children’s Museum (1998-2000). She joined UCLA as an assistant professor in 2016 and was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 2022.

Marin's research as a learning scientist centers on the socio-ecological and cultural dimensions of learning and development. She collaborates with Indigenous communities, community-based organizations, and collectives to co-design educational environments that promote community well-being. Her work employs video-based methodologies to analyze interactions in science-related and arts-based contexts, emphasizing relationality, embodied movement, and place. Notable publications include "Toward Just and Sustainable Futures: Human Learning and Relationality Within Socio-Ecological Systems" (Vossoughi, Marin, & Bang, Review of Research in Education, 2024), "Ambulatory sequences: Ecologies of learning by attending and observing on the move" (Cognition and Instruction, 2020), "“Look it, this is how you know:” Family forest walks and knowledge building about the natural world" (Marin & Bang, Cognition and Instruction, 2018), "Nature–culture constructs in science learning: Human/non-human agency and intentionality" (Bang & Marin, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 2015), and "Muskrat theories, tobacco in the streets, and living Chicago as Indigenous land" (Bang et al., Environmental Education Research, 2014). She has received the Lena Astin Faculty Mentoring Award (2022), International Society of the Learning Sciences Early Career Award (2020–2021), and UC Humanities Research Institute Residential Research Group Fellowship (2020). Principal investigator or co-PI on grants from the Spencer Foundation, NSF, and UCLA.

Professional Email: amarin1@ucla.edu