TWP Speaks!
TWP Speaks! brings educators and renowned literacy scholars together in conversation around a recent practitioner-oriented text the speaker has authored. In addition to a public lecture, we offer TWP members, affiliates, and fans the opportunity to engage in a deeper conversation about each guest’s work through a Professional Development Book Club.
TWP Speaks is made possible through the generous support of the Ruth and Alexander Dworkin Tolerance Fund, which was established to promote collaborations and professional learning between the Centre for Urban Schooling and local teachers and schools.
Previous Talks
March 22, 2022: Dr. Nicole Mirra
Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement
Nicole Mirra is an assistant professor of urban teacher education in the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She previously taught high school English Language Arts in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California. Her research explores the intersections of critical literacy and civic engagement with youth and teachers across classroom, community, and digital learning environments. Central to her research and teaching agenda is a commitment to honoring and amplifying the literacy practices and linguistic resources that students from minoritized communities bring to public life and articulating a speculative paradigm for civic education. She is the author of Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement (Teachers College Press, 2018) and a co-author (with Antero Garcia and Ernest Morrell) of Doing Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Inquiry with Researchers, Educators, and Students (Routledge, 2015).
Dr. Antero Garcia
January 20, 2022: Dr. Antero Garcia
Pose, Wobble, Flow: A Culturally Proactive Approach to Literacy Instruction
Dr. Antero Garica is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. His work explores how technology and gaming shape learning, literacy practices, and civic identities. Based on his research focused on equitable teaching and learning opportunities for urban youth through the use of participatory media and gameplay, Dr. Garcia co-designed the Critical Design and Gaming School–a public high school in South Central Los Angeles.
October 21, 2021: Dr. Elizabeth Dutro
The Vulnerable Heart of the Writing Classroom: Centering Trauma in Critical, Responsive Pedagogy
Elizabeth Dutro is a professor of literacy studies at University of Colorado Boulder. She lives in Denver with her spouse and her two young adult children also live in the Denver area. Elizabeth's research grew from her encounters with children, curriculum, and educational policy in her experience teaching 2nd and 3rd grade in an elementary school in Southern California. Her inquiries are driven by questions about the intersections of literacy, identity, life experiences, and children’s and youth’s opportunities for positive, sustained, and vibrant relationships with school literacies. Through close collaborations with children and teacher colleagues, her current studies include how justice-focused framings of trauma and intentional considerations of difficult life experiences can inform literacy instruction that centers students’ knowledge and brilliance. She is also working with teacher colleagues to study innovative ways for teachers to learn together in the context of their daily work and relationships with children. Her book The Vulnerable Heart of Literacy: Centering Trauma as Powerful Pedagogy was published in 2019 and you can find her work in journals such as Language Arts, the Journal of Literacy Research, and Research in the Teaching of English. Last, but not least, she is a fan of pop culture and is always eager for conversations about the MCU or reality tv!