Rate My Professor Donna Alvermann

Donna Alvermann holds the positions of Omer Clyde and Elizabeth Parr Aderhold Professor in Education Emeritus and University of Georgia Appointed Distinguished Research Professor of Language and Literacy Education Emeritus in the Department of Language and Literacy Education, Mary Frances Early College of Education, at the University of Georgia. She earned her Ph.D. in Reading and Language Arts Education and M.L.S. in Information Studies from Syracuse University in 1980, M.A. in Education with History minor from the University of Texas at Austin in 1968, and B.S. in Education with History minor from the same university in 1965. Prior to academia, she worked as a classroom teacher in Austin and Houston, Texas, and Elmira, New York, from 1965 to 1977. Alvermann served as Assistant Professor at the University of Northern Iowa from 1980 to 1982, joined the University of Georgia College of Education in 1982, and advanced to full Professor in 1990. She was Co-Director and Principal Investigator of the National Reading Research Center in 1992 and held endowed professorships from 2013 until retiring as emeritus in 2021.

Alvermann's research centers on adolescents’ digital literacies and use of popular media, critical media literacy, multimodal literacies, popular culture in K-12 classrooms, and written argumentation. She has authored or edited books including Adolescents and Literacies in a Digital World (2002), Reconceptualizing the Literacies in Adolescents’ Lives (3rd ed., 2012), Adolescents’ Online Literacies: Connecting Classrooms, Digital Media, and Popular Culture (revised ed., 2016), Bring It to Class: Unpacking Pop Culture in Literacy Learning (2010), and Theoretical Models and Processes of Literacy (7th ed., 2019). Highly cited works encompass Effective Literacy Instruction for Adolescents (2002) and contributions to media literacy research. Her honors include election to the Reading Hall of Fame (1999), American Educational Research Association Fellow (2012), William S. Gray Citation of Merit (2006), Computers in Reading Research Award (2012), and Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Award (2022). Alvermann co-edited Reading Research Quarterly (2003-2007), served as President of the Literacy Research Association (1991-1992), and contributed to numerous editorial boards and committees.