Neil Shanks, PhD is Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture at Texas A&M. His research centers on social studies education, teacher education, and economics education; examining how economics functions as a subdiscipline within social studies and how critical, pluralist, and new paradigms can reshape teaching and learning economics in K-12 contexts. Dr. Shanks earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, where he received the Larry Metcalf Exemplary Dissertation Award from the NCSS for his work on critical economics pedagogy. His scholarship has appeared in significant social studies educational journals such as Theory and Research in Social Education, The Social Studies, and Social Education.