Position Title: Assistant Professor of Literacy Education
Contact Information:
1076 Tom Barnes Hall
(205) 348-4081
Education: (list your degrees, with degree first: Ph.D., Literacy Education, Emory University)
Ph.D., Literacy Education, University of Florida
M.L.I.S., Youth Literacy, Florida State University
B.A., Children’s Literature & Cultural Studies, University of Florida
Awards and Honors:
2023 State University of New York at Cortland Dr. Peter Fine Teaching Award
2021 American Reading Forum Gary Moorman Early Career Literacy Scholar Award
Areas of Expertise:
- Critical literacy
- Children’s and young adult literature
- Preparation of culturally sustaining teachers
- Reading comprehension
Current Research and Grant Projects:
- Roll Tide for Reading: A Collaborative Partnership Supporting Children’s Literacy Development
- Troubling Canonical Texts in Alabama Public Schools
- Sponsors of Critical Literacy in Nonfiction Children’s Literature
- CLEVER: Cognition, Learning, and Exploration in Reading
Highlighted Publications:
Adams, B., Mertens, G. E., Fang, Z., & Baugh, M. (2024). Scaffolding expository reading with picture books: Strategies for comprehending informational language. The Reading Teacher, 77(5), 663-672. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2286
Adams, B., Wilson, N. S., Dussling, T., Stevens, E. Y., Van Wig, A., Baumann, J., Yang, S., Mertens, G. E., Bean-Folkes, J., & Smetana, L. (2023). Literacy’s Schrödinger’s cat: Capturing reading comprehension with social annotation. Teaching Education, 34(4), 367-383. https://doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2022.2146088
Adams, B., Colantonio-Yurko, K. C., Miller, H. C., & Boehm, S. (2022). Beyond perpetrators, victims, and survivors: Young adult literature as bystander intervention education. The ALAN Review, 49(3), 42-52.
Kaczmarczyk, A. B., & Adams, B. (2021). Expanding stories: Using author’s notes in culturally authentic picture books. The Reading Teacher, 75(2), 219-225. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2020
Adams, B. (2020). “I didn’t feel confident talking about this issue…but I knew I could talk about a book”: Using young adult literature to make sense of #metoo. Journal of Literacy Research, 52(2) 209–230. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296X20915489
Brief Biography:
Dr. Brittany Adams is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education. She holds a B.A. in Children’s Literature and an M.L.I.S. in Youth Literacy. She received her Ph.D. in Literacy Education from the University of Florida. She teaches undergraduate and undergraduate courses on reading methods, children’s literature, and socio-critical theories of literacy to pre- and in-service teachers across educational contexts. Her research interests include critical literacy, children’s and young adult literature, the preparation of culturally sustaining teachers, and reading comprehension.