Donna Alvermann

Donna Alvermann is an American educator and researcher in the field of Language and Literacy Education whose work focuses on adolescent literacy in and out of school, inclusive of new media and digital literacies. Her most recent research interest involves developing historical-autobiographical methods for uncovering silences in scholarly writing that mask more than they disclose. She is the Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professor in Education in the Mary Frances Early College of Education at the University of Georgia (UGA). She is also a UGA-appointed Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education.

Education Alvermann graduated from Syracuse University in 1980 with a Ph.D. in Reading and Language Education, and an M.L.S in Information Studies. She also holds an M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, with a major in Education and a minor in History. and Allan Luke's Four Literacies Model. She is also influenced by Michel Foucault's philosophy on Discourse and Social Constructionism (especially in regard to Maxine Greene's philosophy on how educational institutions should encourage students to challenge social categorization and power structures, ), and Harold L. Herber's research on how students read. Students develop different literacies, some for in-school and some for out-of-school, but the boundaries between academic and non-academic may be illusory. In fact, many try on multiple voices, which may or may not resemble the identities they present in physical spaces. This kind of “play” encourages free thinking.

Selected peer-reviewed articles Alvermann is the author or co-author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles, including:

Alvermann, D. E., Cho, A., Gannon, M., Mondi, J., Obradovic, M., Pulliam, A., Qi, F., Readhead, S., Wright, W. T., & Yeom, E. Y. (in press). Archival encounters via podcasts: Diversity and voice in practice and research. English Education. Hoffman, J. V., & Alvermann, D. E. (2020). What a genealogical analysis of Nila Banton Smith’s American Reading Instruction reveals about the present through the past. Reading Research Quarterly, 55(2), 251-269. Alvermann, D. E., & Wilson, A. A. (2011). Comprehension strategy instruction for multimodal texts in science. Theory into Practice, 50(2), 116-124. Alvermann, D. E. (2008). Commentary: Why bother theorizing adolescents' online literacies for classroom practice and research? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52, 8-19. Alvermann, D.E., & Hruby, G. G. (2000). Mentoring and reporting research: A concern for aesthetics. Reading Research Quarterly, 35, 46-63. Alvermann, D. E., Young, J. P., Weaver, D., Hinchman, K. A., Moore, D. W., Phelps, S. F., Thrash, E. C., & Zalewski, P. (1996). Middle and high school students' perceptions of how they experience text- based discussions: A multicase study. Reading Research Quarterly. 31, 244-267. Alvermann, D. E., O'Brien, D. G., & Dillon, D. R. (1990). What teachers do when they say they're having discussions of content reading assignments: A qualitative analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 25(4), 296-322. Alvermann, D. E., & Hayes, D. A. (1989). Classroom discussion of content area reading assignments: An intervention study. Reading Research Quarterly, 24(3), 305-335. Alvermann, D. E., Smith, L. C., & Readence, J. E. (1985). Prior knowledge activation and the comprehension of compatible and incompatible text. Reading Research Quarterly, 20(4), 420-436.

Selected books Alvermann has authored or co-authored over twenty books, including: Alvermann, D. E., Unrau, N. J., Sailors, M., & Ruddell, R. B. (Eds.). (2019). Theoretical models and processes of literacy (7th ed., 624 pp.). New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group Alvermann, D. E., Unrau, N. J., Sailors, M., & Ruddell, R. B. (Eds.). (2019). Theoretical models and processes of literacy (7th ed., 624 pp.). New York: Routledge. Alvermann, D. E., & Hinchman, K. A. (Eds.). (2012). Reconceptualizing the literacies in adolescents’ lives (3rd ed.). New York: Routledge. Alvermann, D. E. (Ed.). (2010). Adolescents’ online literacies: Connecting classrooms, digital media, and popular culture. New York: Peter Lang. Alvermann, D. E. (Ed.). (2002). Adolescents and literacies in a digital world. New York: Peter Lang. Alvermann, D. E., Moon, J. S., & Hagood, M. C. (1999). Popular culture in the classroom: Teaching and researching critical media literacy. Newark, DE: International Reading Association

Selected peer-reviewed chapters Alvermann is the author or co-author of over 100 book chapters, including:

Alvermann, D. E., Wynne, E., & Wright, W. T. (2022). Tales from TikTok: Gender and cultural intersectionalities. In Genders, cultures and literacies: Understanding intersecting identities (pp. 198-211). Routledge. Alvermann, D. E., & Wright, W. T. (2021). Adolescent literacies. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Education. Oxford University Press. Alvermann, D. E., & Sanders, R. K. (2019). Adolescent literacy in a digital world. In The international encyclopedia of media literacy. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Alvermann, D. E., & Moje, E. B. (2019). A relational model of adolescent literacy instruction: Disrupting the discourse of “every teacher a teacher of reading.” In Theoretical models and processes of literacy (7th ed., pp. 362-380). New York: Routledge. Alvermann, D. E., & Robinson, B. (2017). Youths’ global engagement in digital writing ecologies. In Handbook of Writing, Literacies and Education in Digital Cultures (pp. 161-172). New York: Routledge. Alvermann, D. E., Beach, C. L., & Boggs, G. L. (2016). What does digital media allow us to “do” to one another? Economic significance of content and connection. In Handbook of research on the societal impact of digital media (pp. 2151-2174). Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Alvermann, D. E. (2011). Popular culture and literacy practices. In Handbook of reading research: Volume IV (pp. 541-560). New York: Routledge. Alvermann, D. E. (2010). The teaching of reading. In Reading the past, writing the future: A century of American literacy education and the National Council of Teachers of English (pp. 55-90). Urbana, IL: NCTE.