ELATE Janet Emig Award
2026 Recipients
Nadia Behizadeh, David E. Low, and Jung Kim for “Breaking the Silence: Using Critical Literacy to Discuss Palestine and Israel,” published in the July 2025 issue of English Education
Nadia Behizadeh is a professor of adolescent literacy at Georgia State University and the incoming coeditor of English Education. She is a former middle school teacher whose scholarly endeavors center on increasing students’ access to critical literacy instruction that prepares them to envision and build a more just world. Nadia has been a member of the National Council of Teachers of English for over 20 years and can be contacted at nbehizadeh@gsu.edu.
David E. Low is a professor in the Department of Teacher Preparation at Fresno State. He is a former high school teacher and cartoonist whose work examines the critical meaning-making practices of children and youth. David’s 2024 book is an exploration of transgressive humor as a form of social and political critique in secondary classrooms. It won a Luis Moll Book Award. David’s work is dedicated to educating teachers and school leaders to situate educational disparities within political, social, and historical contexts and to surface possibilities for social change through collaborative critical inquiry. More at www.davidelow.com.
Jung Kim is a professor of literacy and co-chair of the Department of Education at Lewis University. A former English teacher and literacy coach, she also serves on her local elementary school board. She writes about graphic novels, race, equity, and diverse literature, with a particular focus on Asian American issues.
Lindsey Pierce Ives, Mike P. Cook, and Brandon L. Sams for “Preparing Activist ELA Teachers for the Political: An Exploration of Approaches in Our Field,” published in the July 2025 issue of English Education
Mike P. Cook is professor of ELA education at Auburn University, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses. His scholarship largely focuses on multimodal literacy, equitable assessment, and teacher activism. He is the author of Fostering Activism in Teacher Education: Preparing ELA Teachers Who Engage the World (2026). His work has appeared in English Education, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Action in Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education, and other outlets.
Award Details
Purpose:
This award for exemplary scholarship is given to the author of an article published in English Education during the previous calendar year. The award is given in honor of Janet Emig, Professor Emeritus of English Education at Rutgers University, for her contribution to the field of English Education.
Award Criteria:
- The selection committee may consider published material of any length in English Education.
- The article to be awarded must have been published within the calendar year of issues being considered.
Award Specifics:
Letters of nomination may be made by any language arts educator or by self-nomination. Nominations for articles published between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, must be received no later than January 31, 2026. Send nominations to ELATE Emig Award at elate@ncte.org. Winners are notified in July and announced at the NCTE Annual Convention.
ELATE Janet Emig Award Winners
2026
Nadia Behizadeh, David E. Low, and Jung Kim for “Breaking the Silence: Using Critical Literacy to Discuss Palestine and Israel,” English Education, July 2025
Lindsey Pierce Ives, Mike P. Cook, and Brandon L. Sams for “Preparing Activist ELA Teachers for the Political: An Exploration of Approaches in Our Field,” English Education, July 2025
2025
Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, “Affecting Social Class Literacy: Classed Emotions in Preservice Teachers’ Lives, Literature Analysis, and Future Teaching,” English Education, October 2024
Honorable Mention: Rubén A. González, “‘I’ve always had the abolitionist spirit in me’: Preservice Teachers of Color and Pedagogies of Abolitionist Praxis,” English Education, April 2024
2024
Ankhi G. Thakurta, “Solidarity-as-Project: Charting Democratic Co-inquiries in an Asian American Girl and Woman–Centric English Education Community,” English Education, July 2023
2023
Stephanie Anne Shelton, “‘Communities of Discomfort’: Empowering LGBTQ+ Ally Work in a Southeastern Rural Community,” English Education, April 2022
2022
Nadia Behizadeh, Cheryll M. Thompson-Smith, and PJ Miller, “‘Peeling off the Mask’: Challenges and Supports for Enacting Critical Pedogagy in Student Teaching,” English Education, April 2021
2021
Esther O. Ohito, “‘The Creative Aspect Woke Me Up’: Awakening to Multimodal Essay Composition as a Fugitive Literacy Practice,” English Education, April 2020
2020
Justin Grinage, “Reopening Racial Wounds: Whiteness, Melancholia, and Affect in the English Classroom,” English Education, January 2019
2019
Kate Seltzer and Cati V. de los Ríos, “Translating Theory to Practice: Exploring Teachers’ Raciolinguistic Literacies in Secondary English Classrooms,” English Education, October 2018
1980-1989 (Decade award given in 2019)
Maxine Greene, “Toward Possibility: Expanding the Range of Literacy,” English Education, December 1986
2018
Danny C. Martinez, “Imagining a Language of Solidarity for Black and Latinx Youth in English Language Arts Classrooms,” English Education, January 2017
2017
Detra Price-Dennis, “Developing Curriculum to Support Black Girls’ Literacies in Digital Spaces,” English Education, July 2016.
2016
Gholnecsar E. Muhammad, “‘Inducing Colored Sisters of Other Places to Imitate Their Example’: Connecting Historic Literary Societies to a Contemporary Writing Group,” English Education, April 2015.
2015
Denise N. Morgan and Kristine E. Pytash, “Preparing Preservice Teachers to Become Teachers of Writing: A 20-Year Review of the Research Literature,” English Education, October 2014.
2014
Marcelle Haddix and Detra Price-Dennis, “Urban Fiction and Multicultural Literature as Transformative Tools for Preparing English Teachers for Diverse Classrooms,” English Education, April 2013.
2013
Janet D. Johnson, “’A Rainforest in Front of a Bulldozer’: The Literacy Practices of Teacher Candidates Committed to Social Justice,” English Education, January 2012
2012
Brian White, “The Vulnerable Population of Teacher-Researchers; Or, ‘Why I Can’t Name My Coauthors’,” English Education, July 2011
2011
Glynda A. Hull, Amy Stornaiuolo, and Urvashi Sahni, “Cultural Citizenship and Cosmopolitan Practice: Global Youth Communicate Online,” English Education, July 2010
2010
Robert P. Yagelski, “A Thousand Writers Writing: Seeking Change through the Radical Practice of Writing as a Way of Being,” English Education, 2009
2010 Honorable Mention:
Nancy M. Bailey, “‘It makes it more real’: Teaching New Literacies in a Secondary English Classroom,” English Education, 2009
2009
Anne Whitney, Sheridan Blau, Alison Bright, Rosemary Cabe, Tim Dewar, Jason Levin, Roseanne Macias, and Paul Rogers, “Beyond Strategies: Teacher Practice, Writing Process, and the Influence of Inquiry,” English Education, 2008
2008
Suzanne M. Miller, “Changing English Teacher Learning for New Times: Digital Video Composing as Multimodal Literacy Practice,” English Education, 2007
2007
Robert A. Tremmel, “Changing the Way We Think in English Education: A Conversation in the Universal Barbershop,” English Education, 2006
2006
Anne Haas Dyson, “Crafting ‘The Humble Prose of Living’: Rethinking Oral/Written Relations in the Echoes of Spoken Word,” English Education, 2005
2005
Susan V. Wall, “Writing the ‘Self’ in Teacher Research: The Potential Powers of a New Professional Discourse,” English Education, 2004
2004
Kevin G. Basmadjian, Leah Kirell, Stephen M. Koziol, Jr., Emily R. Smith, “On Learning to Teach English Teachers: A Textured Portrait of Mentoring,” English Education, 2003
2003
Peter Smagorinsky, Andrea Lakly, Tara Star Johnson, “Acquiescence, Accommodation, and Resistance in Learning to Teach within a Prescribed Curriculum,” English Education, 2002
2002
no award given
2001
Patricia Lambert Stock, “Toward a Theory of Genre in Teacher Research: Contributions from a Reflective Practitioner,” English Education, 2001
1990-1999 (Decade Award given in 2001)
Anne Haas Dyson, ” What Difference does Difference Make? Teacher Perspectives on Diversity, Literacy, and the Urban Primary School,” English Education, May 1995.
2000
Robert Tremmel, “Still Loading Pig Iron after All These Years: Tribalism and English Education in the Global Contact Zone,” English Education, April 2000
1969-1979 (Inaugural Award given in 2000)
Robert C. Small, “Student Authority,” English Education