Abstract
In 2023, the Literacy Research Association returned to Atlanta, GA from November 29 to December 2 for its 73rd Annual Conference. The conference theme was “Interrogating Hierarchies: Building a Humanitarian Literacy Research Architecture that Binds.” This theme was an extension of the previous year's conference theme with the hope that it would serve as a bridge for future conference themes. Impressively, the 560 scholarly presentations from members across the international landscape aligned with a humanitarian perspective and recognition that literacy research must serve aims larger than itself. The membership was charged to build a more consequential research community while being intentional to expand LRA's impact and geographic responsiveness to more parts of the globe where erosive hierarchies persist. Far too many people—children and adults—experience some form of erasure that is directly tied to their literacy and lived experiences. This reality warrants interrogation that has the potential to yield exaltation. Simply put, the focus of our research should serve as a leverage to hold those who we serve and care about in the highest regard. The research we write and produce matters.
The author and poet Maya Angelou was right when she stated in a 2011 CNN interview, “during bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not.” The major addresses, research paper presentations, symposia, alternative format sessions, roundtables, study groups, and integrative research reviews were imbued with seriousness and sincerity.
Featured Events
A large number of attendees gathered during the President's Reception on Wednesday evening to recognize and celebrate Doris Walker-Dalhouse's leadership and service to LRA. The Newcomers Welcome Reception, an annual staple of the conference hosted by the Field Council, was a highlight of the conference as longstanding and returning members of LRA mingled with the next generation of LRA leaders. Other featured events included the Town Hall, the Annual Business Meeting, Standing Committee Meetings, the Annual Silent Book Auction, and Vital Issues. The STAR Program Cross-Cohort Research Showcase and The Reading Hall of Fame Mentoring Session were also featured.
LRA members were asked to stand in solidarity against antisemitism and Islamophobia at the Town Hall, moderated by Board Members Cynthia Brock and Zhihui Fang. LRA member Barbara Laster led the organization in stating the following: Within our LRA community, individuals or their families or friends have been assaulted because they identified as Jewish or Muslim, Palestinian or Israeli. Tonight, we take one minute to grieve together for the lost lives, and those taken hostage and/or injured, and for many of us, we mourn our lost innocence. We are appealing to everyone to hold each other closer during these distressing times. Each of us has a role to play in standing in solidarity against hate that targets any member of our community and to call it out whenever we see it.
Major Addresses
Attendees at the 73nd Annual Conference were invited to attend several major addresses to complement and elevate the intellectual experiences of the varied sessions and discussions. Distinguished speakers and scholars delivered the Presidential Address, the Oscar Causey Award Address, the Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award Address, the invited plenary addresses, and integrative research reviews.
Doris Walker-Dalhouse, delivered the Presidential Address on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. The address was titled, “Black Bodies, White Communities: Interrogating Hierarchies that Impede Transformative Instruction for Refugee Students.” Doris chronicled the experiences of South Sudanese (Dinka) refugees resettling in a hegemonically white community in the upper midwestern U.S. She examined issues related to the acculturation and education of Black African involuntary (refugee) children. Doris mentioned, “we must interrogate hierarchies that prevent students who are marginalized because of the ethnic, racial, or migratory identities from achieving agency in literacy learning.” Her address featured an AI-generated video.
On Thursday, November 30, 2023, Elizabeth Moje, Dean, George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Education, and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture in the Marsal Family School of Education at the University of Michigan, delivered the Oscar Causey Address. The title of her address was “The Search for Just Literacy: A Tale of a Quest for Impact Told in Three Acts (and an Epilogue).” Elizabeth described her youth and disciplinary literacy research over the trajectory of her career, describing how twists and turns in her work and career have culminated in a powerful collective impact partnership that integrates research, practice, and policy in the service of education transformation and neighborhood reclamation. She concluded her address by reflecting on the need to examine and expand how the field engages in research to produce more just and equitable opportunities to learn and teach literacy.
The Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award Address was given by Lisa Delpit, a recently retired Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professor of Education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her address entitled, “The More Things Change…Why Are We Still Failing to Educate All Children?” Lisa provided a sobering analysis and overview of how distorted beliefs in our country's consciousness affect how we see children and the strategies employed to teach them. This address was also delivered on Thursday, November 30, 2023.
Donna Ford, Distinguished Professor of Education and Human Ecology in the College of Education and Human Ecology at Ohio State University, was Friday morning's plenary speaker. The title of his address was “Beyond Lip Service: Decolonizing Children's Literature for REAL (Racial Pride, Equity, Achievement, and Liberation).” She advanced the goal and moral imperative to ensure that minoritized students have access to rigorous multicultural literature offering, “that adopting such literature cannot happen unless educators are anti-racist, equity-minded, and culturally competent.”
The scheduled Friday evening plenary speaker was Tyrone Howard, Pritzker Family Endowed professor in the School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. The title of his address was “Equity Now. Why Justice Matters for Education Opportunity.” He had planned to discuss the salience of what equity now in this moment calls for by centering his work within a justice and repairing harm framework. He was prepared to deliver a charge to lift up important research on literacy and truth-telling that speaks to the significance of the current moment while offering evidence-based strategies and solutions for educational practitioners, leaders, and advocates to challenge the harmful discourse harming historically marginalized students. Unfortunately, he had to return home immediately after landing in Atlanta because of a family emergency.
On Saturday, December 2, 2023, the Integrative Research Review Panel interrogated hierarchies to build a humanitarian literacy research architecture from multiple perspectives. The members of the panel wrote, “As a research community, we need to deal with the fact that past research has had unintended results and consequences that have erased cultural, disciplinary, economic, linguistic, political, and technological identities instead of giving everyone a chance to have better access to language(s), reading, writing, and knowledge(s).” The panelists included: Latrise Johnson, Antero Garcia, Raúl Alberto Mora, and Seth Parsons. The titles of the presentations were as follows: Latrise Johnson—“Write the Power: How Writing Research Can Dismantle Hierarchies in Literacy Research”; Antero Garcia—“Multiversal Learning Possibilities: Speculative Pedagogies through Social Design”; Raúl Alberto Mora—“Disrupting the Hierarchies of English in Literacy Research: A Call to Rebuild our Research Architecture”; and Seth Parsons—“Interrogating Hierarchies within the Science of Reading Movement.”
Award Recipients
Recognizing outstanding service and exemplary research is a hallmark of the annual conference. Members of the established award communities are always challenged to select a winner from a competitive pool of applicants. These winners are then recognized publicly for their contributions to LRA and the field of literacy research. Thirteen members were awarded and recognized at the 2023 conference.
The Albert J. Kingston Award is given to honor an LRA member for distinguished contributions of service to LRA. The 2023 recipient is Amy Hutchinson, Fayard Endowed Chair in Literacy Education at the University of Alabama.
The Arthur Applebee Award is presented in memory of University at Albany Distinguished Professor, Arthur Applebee, an internationally renowned scholar for his seminal work in literacy and language. The award is given to honor an outstanding article in literacy research published in a refereed journal in the previous year. Jessica Z. Pandya and David E. Low were recognized for their article entitled, “Centering children's voices and purposes in multimodality research” in Journal of Literacy Research in 2022.
The Early Career Achievement Award honors new LRA members who have been actively involved in research, teaching, and service for approximately 3 to 7 years and have demonstrated outstanding commitment and accomplishment. The Early Career Award was presented to Emily Machado, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Edward B. Fry Award recognizes members who author a book focused on literacy research and practice. The award was presented to Allison Wynhoff Olsen and Robert Petrone for their book, Teaching English in Rural Communities: Toward a Critical Rural English Pedagogy published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers in 2021.
The J. Michael Parker Award honors the memory of J. Michael Parker. The purpose of the award, consistent with his interest in adult literacy, is intended to encourage research in adult literacy by a doctoral student or an early-career untenured scholar. There was no award winner for 2023.
The Oscar S, Causey Award is named in honor of Oscar S. Causey, the founder of LRA and past member of the executive committee. It is awarded to honor an LRA member for outstanding contributions to reading research. David Bloome, Distinguished Professor of Teaching and Learning Emeritus Faculty at Ohio State University, was selected as this year's winner.
The P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award is awarded to honor authors who have published an article/chapter/book that has clearly and positively influenced literacy practices and/or policies within district, school and/or classroom settings. The publication must have been published within 5 years prior to its nomination. Carol Booth Olson, Tina Matuchniak, Huy Q. Chung, Rachel Stumpf, and George Farkas were selected for the award for “Reducing achievement gaps in academic writing for Latinos and English learners in grades 7–12” published in the Journal of Educational Psychology in 2017.
The Student Outstanding Research Award is awarded to a student member of LRA in recognition of an outstanding research paper. Scott Storm, New York University, received this year's award.
Scholars of Color Transitioning into Academic Research Institutions (STAR)
The STAR mentoring program promotes excellence in high-quality, literacy-related research that focuses on issues and opportunities related to diversity. The scholars selected for the program are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and are starting or completing their first year of employment in an academic setting. Scholars are selected from a cohort and each scholar is assigned a mentor for a 2-year period.
The members of the 2022 to 2024 cohort of STAR fellows are as follows: Marcus Croom, Indiana University in Bloomington; Tala Karkar Esperat, Eastern New Mexico University; Jin Kyeong Jung, Texas Tech University; Jungmin Kwon, Michigan State University; Jason D. Mizell, University of Miami; Rosa Nam, Colorado State University; Lakeya Omogun, University of Washington; and Crystal N. Wise, University of Minnesota.
Outgoing and Incoming Board Members
We extend heartfelt appreciation for the invaluable contributions of colleagues dedicated to the service of LRA. President Doris Walker-Dalhouse thanked Past President David Yaden for his service on the Executive Committee. She welcomed Cynthia Brock as the incoming Vice-President.
Three outgoing members of the Board of Directors were thanked for their service to LRA. They were Virginia Goatley, Mary McVee, and Patriann Smith. President Walker-Dalhouse then welcomed Christian Ehret, Tisha Lewis Ellison, and Nicole Mirra to the Board of Directors for a 3-year term (2023–2026).
Outgoing and Incoming Committee Chairs
Two outgoing Standing Committee Chairs were thanked for their service to LRA. Tiffany Flowers—Ethnicity, Race & Multilingualism Committee Chair; and Kate Kedley—Gender & Sexualities Committee Chair.
Five outgoing Chairs of Awards committees were thanked for their service in enhancing literacy research and scholarship, and in significantly promoting the wellbeing of the Association. The five outgoing chairs were Kristin Conradi Smith—Early Career Achievement Committee; Michiko Hikida—Brian Street Memorial Award Committee; Annemarie Palinscar and Miranda Fitzgerald—P.D. Pearson Award Committee; and Judson Laughter—Student Outstanding Research Award Committee.
In Memoriam
We recognized the passing of two of our colleagues during the 73rd Annual Conference—Andrea DeBruin-Parecki and Sue Dymock.
Andrea DeBruin-Parecki was a decades-long LRA member and tireless advocate for childhood education. She was widely recognized for her work in early childhood education and family literacy. Andrea relentlessly advocated for diverse communities and focused on establishing effective literacy-related programs designed to positively impact families, teachers and schools all over the United States. She served on the faculties of Northern Iowa University and Old Dominion University.
Sue Dymock, a past recipient of LRA's Student Outstanding Research Award, conducted research focused on understanding and supporting students with literacy difficulties, particularly dyslexia. Sue was selected as a Fellow of the International Academy of Research in Learning Disabilities in 2016. She published ten books on supporting teachers to teach reading and to work with dyslexic students. Sue was a senior lecturer in literacy and teacher education in Te Kura Toi Tangata School of Education at The University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand.
Appreciation
Planning the 73rd Annual Conference was the highlight of my professional service and commitment to LRA, an association that welcomed and embraced me more than 20 years ago. Adding to the magnitude of the task, planning the conference occurred while LRA was transitioning to a new management company. I am grateful for the invaluable and timely counsel, guidance, and support provide by Fenice Boyd, Conference Co-Chair and Vice President. Jodi Metzgar and Nicollette Schmeichel who were serving as LRA's Executive Director and Associate Executive Director deserve encomium because of their professionalism and expertise. Thanks also go to Lora Finucane and Adrianna Borczyk of the Center for Association Resources for their support.
The extraordinary work of the area chairs and reviewers become more visible to me as I witnessed them balance their professional and personal commitments while serving LRA. They are the key to each conference; there is no conference without them.
Conference 2024
The 74th Annual Conference of the Literacy Research Association will be held at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, GA. The theme of the conference is “Empowerment Literacy (IES): Making ‘Good Trouble’ That Actuates Agency.” President-Elect Fenice Boyd is the Conference Chair and Vice-President Cynthia Brock is the Conference Co-Chair. Let us stand ready to support them.