College of Education

Education

• PhD., Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education (Michigan State University)
• M.Ed., Reading, Language, and Literacy (Georgia State University)
• B.S.Ed., English Education (Kennesaw State University)

Biography

Rae Oviatt, Ph.D., has well over a decade of experience in education, community organizing, and research. She was a middle and high school English teacher and teacher of multilingual and bilingual English language learners across urban contexts in Atlanta, Bangkok, Indianapolis, and Lansing. She was a recipient of NCTE’s ELATE Graduate Research Award. Her dissertation, "Multimodal Stories to Tell: Fostering Coalitional Civic Resistance through Critical Educator, Youth & Community Partnerships" brought together arts-based multimodal literacies, critical participatory action research, and her conceptual framework of pedagogies of coalitional liberation to examine the power of teacher advocacy, participatory literacies, and youth organizing. At Michigan State University, she taught Human Diversity, Power, and Opportunity in Social Institutions and English Education for Diverse Learners & YPAR Lab, which brought together her expertise across both urban education and secondary literacies. She is currently Assistant Professor of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University, where she teaches Schools as Agencies of Community Collaboration. Dr. Oviatt’s current inquiry examines the potential for centering Queer of Color literacies and epistemologies across urban school districts and community organizations.

Interests and Expertise

Research Interests

• Critical Participatory Action Research
• Youth Movement Building
• Queer of Color Literacies & Epistemologies
• Pedagogies of Coalitional Liberation

Publications and Presentations

Selected Publications

• Oviatt, R.L. & Reid, S. F. (2021). “Bounding Our Liberation Together: Toward Pedagogies of Coalitional Liberation”. Michigan Reading Journal. Vol. 53 (4).
• Watson, V.W.M., Oviatt, R.L., Flennaugh, T.K. Jackson, S., DeLoach, R., Byrd, C. Pugh, J. (2020). "This Research that We are Doing is Just the Beginning of the Conversation”: Undergraduate Researchers Enacting Literacies of Relationality. Journal of College. Orientation and Transition, Vol. 27 (2).
• Kennedy, L. M., Oviatt, R. L., & De Costa, P. I. (2019). Refugee Youth’s Identity Expressions and Multimodal Literacy Practices in a Third Space. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 33(1),56-70.

Selected Presentations

• Oviatt, R.L., Matusz, A., Hamilton, M., McElwee, M., Farney, O. (October, 2021) “Culturally Queer Responsive Literacies.” A panel presented at the Michigan Council of Teachers of English, East Lansing, MI.
• Oviatt, R.L., Rombalski, A., Schey, R., Gainer, J., Blackburn, M., Jocson, K., Lizárraga, J.R., Young, C., Sealey-Ruiz, Y., Johnson, L., Zamora Liu, R., Martinez, D. (December, 2020) “Solidarity in the Face of Adversity: Self-work, Comradeship, and Unification.” A study-group presented at the Literacy Research Association, Houston, TX.
• Lee, C. & Oviatt, R.L. (2020, November) “Amplifying Youth Voices and Songs in University Community Partnerships.” A panel presented at the National Council for Teachers of English Education, Denver, CO.
• Oviatt, R.L., Watson, V.W.M., Flennaugh, T.K. (2020, April). “Undergraduate Scholars as Intermediaries: Negotiated Questioning and Transformational Resistance.” A paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.
• Oviatt, R.L., Feith, C. (2019, December) “Naming Our Joy: Queering YPAR in Preservice Teacher Literacy Education.” A poster presented at the Literacy Research Association. Tampa, FL.
• Oviatt, R.L., Bloomfield, B., Daniel, R., Espinoza,E., Feith, C., Gandy, R., Ward, M. (2019, November)“Queering English Education.” A paper presented at the National Council for Teachers of English Education. Baltimore, MD.
• Oviatt, R.L. (2019, November)"Meet me at the Crossroads: Crafting Community Collaborations.” A research award paper presented at the National Council for Teachers of English Education. Baltimore, MD.

Memberships

• National Council for the Teaching of English English
  • Language and Teacher Education (ELATE)
• Michigan Council of Teachers of English (MCTE)
• American Educational Research Association (AERA)
  • Division G: Social Context of Education
  • Division K: Teacher Education
  • SIG: Writing and Literacies
  • SIG: Grassroots Community Organizing for Education Reform