Heather M. Pleasants

Assistant Professor of Qualitative Research Methods
Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology and Counseling
313C Carmichael Hall
(205) 348-3282
hpleasan@bamaed.ua.edu
Appointed in 2005

Recent Courses Taught:

BER 631: Inquiry as Interpretation: Qualitative Research I
BER 632: Reflexivity and Resistance in Research (Re)Presentations: Qualitative Research II

Areas of Research:

Theorizing mobility in qualitative inquiry
Narrative and discursive representation of identity (emphasis on race, class and gender)
New literacies teaching and learning in community contexts

Academic Degrees:

Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2000. Educational Psychology: Specialization in Language, Literacy and Learning.
B.S., University of Michigan-Flint, 1992. Psychology.

Professional Experiences:

Assistant Professor of Qualitative Research Methodology, The University of Alabama, 2005 – Present.

Assistant Professor, University of Delaware, Multicultural Education, 2001-2005.

Scholar-in-Residence, Neighborhood House Community Center, Wilmington, DE, 2003-2004.

Assistant Professor, Indiana State University, Qualitative Research/Multicultural Education, 1999-2001.

Qualitative Research Consultant, Office of Educational Research and Evaluation, Indiana State University, 1999-2001.

Selected Publications:

Pleasants, H.M. (2008). Identity negotiations in writing and relationships: Digital storytelling with African American adolescent girls in an urban community center. In L. Vasuvedan and M. Hill (Eds.), Media, learning and sites of possibility. New York: Peter Lang.

Pleasants, H.M. (2008). Showing students who you are. In M. Pollock (Ed.), Everyday antiracism: concrete ways to successfully navigate the relevance of race in school. New York: The New Press.

Selected Presentations:

Pleasants, H.M. (November, 2007). Dis)locating the other: Exploring positionalities in a community-based multicultural education course. 106th Anthropological Association Annual Meeting. Washington, DC.

Pleasants, H.M. (January, 2007). Temporal literacies, digitized identities: Complexity and possibility in multimodal discourse analysis, Paper presentation at the 20th Annual Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies Conference (QUIG). Athens, GA.

Pleasants, H.M. (January, 2007). Breast cancer discourse in the blogosphere: New media, new literacies? Paper presentation at the 20th Annual Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies Conference (QUIG). Athens, GA.