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Sophia Sarigianides

Biography

Dr. Sophia Tatiana Sarigianides, Professor and Coordinator of English Education, has been teaching at WSU since 2010. Her research and scholarship focus on antiracist literature instruction and ELA teacher preparation, teaching about social class through literature, and representations of youth in YAL and in teacher thinking. She is the author, with Dr. Carlin Borsheim-Black, of the 2019 Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students, recipient of AACTE's 2022 Outstanding Book Award.

Education

  • Teachers College, Columbia University English Education, Ph.D., 2010

  • California State University, Long Beach Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential, English

  • University of California, Irvine English Literature, MA, en passant

  • University of California, Los Angeles English Literature, BA
    Summa Cum Laude

Courses Taught

  • ENGLISH 609 Contemporary Issues in the Teaching of English 

  • ENGLISH 539 Advanced Methods in the Teaching of English

  • ENGLISH 397 Special Topic: Theory & the Young Adult Novel

  • ENGLISH 350/550 Methods in the Teaching of English

  • ENGLISH 338/538 Young Adult Literature in the ELA Classroom

  • ENGLISH 322 Practicum Seminar in the Teaching of English

  • ENGLISH 110 Honors Composition II

  • ENGLISH 102 Composition

  • ENGLISH 101 Composition

Areas of Research

Antiracist literature instruction

ELA teacher preparation

Teaching about social class through literature

Representations of youth in YAL and in teacher thinking

Publications

Borsheim-Black C. & Sarigianides, S.T. (2019). Letting Go of Literary Whiteness: Antiracist Literature Instruction for White Students. New York, NY: Teachers College Press. Winner of AACTE’s 2022 Outstanding Book Award.

Sarigianides, S.T., Petrone, R. & Lewis, M. (2017). Rethinking the “adolescent” in adolescent literacy. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

Sarigianides, S.T. & Haertling Thein, A. (2022, March). Class Acts. English Journal, 111(4).

Sarigianides, S.T., Lewis, M. & Petrone, R. (2015, January). Re-thinking Adolescence to Re-imagine English. English Journal, 104(3).

Sarigianides, S.T. & Borsheim-Black, C. (2022, October). High Fidelity: Factors Affecting Pre-service Teachers’ Commitment to Antiracist Literature Instruction. English Education, 55(1), 7-26

Sarigianides, S.T. & Banack, A. (2021, March). A Call To Critically Reconsider Popular Antiracist Activities. English Journal, 110(4), 18-20.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2019). Performative Youth: The Literacy Possibilities of De-Essentializing Adolescence. English Education, 51(4), 376-403.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2017). “Coerced Loss and Ambivalent Preservation”: Racial Melancholia in American Born Chinese. Educational Theory, 16(1), 37-49.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2016). Shifting the Abject: Examining Abjected Adolescence in Teacher Thinking. Curriculum Inquiry, 46(4), 388-407.

Lewis, M., Petrone, R.& Sarigianides, S.T. (2016). Acting Adolescent? Critical Examinations of the Youth-Adult Binary in Feed and Looking for Alaska. The ALAN Review, 43-50.

Sarigianides, S.T., Lewis, M. & Petrone, R. (2015). How Re-thinking Adolescence Helps Re-Imagine the Teaching of English. English Journal, 104(3), 13-18.

Petrone, R., Sarigianides, S.T. & Lewis, M. (2014). The Youth Lens: Analyzing Adolescence/ts in Texts. Journal of Literacy Research, 46(4), 475-505.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2014). Rampant Teen Sex: Teen Sexuality and the Promise of Happiness as Obstacles To Rethinking Adolescence. Journal of Youth Studies, 17(8), 1061-1076.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2012). Tensions in Teaching Adolescents/ce: Analyzing Resistances in a Young Adult Literature Course. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 56(3), 222-230.

Borsheim-Black, C. & Sarigianides, S.T. (2023). The Necessity of a Suspect Mindset: Interrupting Whiteness Through Literature Study, Creative Writing, and Whole Group Talk (Commentary). In Badenhorst, P., Tanner, S.J. & Grinage, J. (Eds.) Reckoning with the Whiteness of English Education: Transformative Pedagogies in English Language Arts and Beyond, 161-165.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2022). Who is the “young adult” in young adult literature? Critically analyzing conceptions of adolescence in texts designed for their consumption. In Bickmore, S., Strickland, T.H., & Graber, S. (Eds.) How Young Adult Literature Gets Taught: Perspectives, Ideologies, and Pedagogical Approaches for Instruction and Assessment. New York: Routledge.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2019). Understanding racial melancholia: Analyzing race-related losses and opportunities for mourning through Yang’s American Born Chinese. In Ginsberg, R. & Glenn, W.J. (Eds.) Engaging with Multicultural YA Literature in the Secondary Classroom. New York, NY: Routledge, 74-82.

Petrone, R. & Sarigianides, S.T. (2017). Re-Positioning Youth in English Teacher Education. In Heidi Hallman (Ed.) Innovations in English Language Arts Teacher Education (with Robert Petrone). Advances in Research on Teaching, Volume 27. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 89-105.

Sarigianides, S.T. (2014). Review of Fictions of Adolescence Carnality: Sexy Sinners and Delinquent Deviants, by Lydia Kokkola, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly (39)1, 178-179.

Community Engagement

  • The Impact of Learning about Social Class in 12th Grade ELA, WSU Event, December 2023.
  • The Impact of Learning about Race in ELA, WSU Virtual Event, Spring 2022.

Campus Engagement

  • English Department Capstone, Advisor, Kyle Palazzi, 2022-2023
  • Seniors Honors Project, Member, Rhenna Barry (Nursing), 2022-2023
  • “The Impact of Antiracist ELA on Students”, Zoom Presentation with local teachers & students, April 3, 2023
  • Day of Dialogue, Panel participant, March 2023
  • WSU Anti-Oppression Committee, Member, 2022-present
  • Anti-Racist Education Committee, Presenter, “Tensions & Interventions with AR Pedagogies in Schools”, April 2022
  • English Department PD Meeting, Presenter, “Designing Antiracist Curriculum”, January 2022
  • English Department Anti-Racist Committee, Member, 2020-present
  • Promotions Committee, Chair, 2021-2023
  • English Department Capstone, Advisor, Nicole Godard, 2020-2021
  • English Department Capstone, Advisor, Jennifer Cupp, 2020-2021
  • English Department Curriculum Committee, Spring 2021
  • Teacher Education Council (TEC), Dispositional Assessment Sub-committee, Spring 2021
  • English Department Antiracist Committee, 2020-present
  • Academic Honesty Committee, Invited member, 2020-2021
  • Seniors Honors Project, Member, Sarah Remy (history), 2020
  • Tenure Committee, Elected member, 2018-2020
  • English Department Antiracist Pedagogy Workshops, Co-facilitator with Catherine Savini, 2017-2018
  • English Department Graduate Committee, Member, 2017-present
  • Seniors Honors Project, Advisor, Christine Luongo, 2018
  • Seniors Honors Project, Second Reader, Kaitlyn Hester (Education), 2018
  • Promotions Committee Elected member, 2017-2019
  • Academic Policies Committee, Elected member, 2015-2016; 2016-2
  • Guest Lecture Series, Junot Diaz on Race & Immigration in Election Year 2016, (with Dr. Andrew Hafner)
  • Seniors Honors Project, Project Advisor, (Amber Robert, 2015; Jim Madigan, 2014)
  • Student Affairs Committee, Elected Member, 2014
  • Teacher Education Council, Representative, English Education Coordinator, 2010-2016
  • English Education Committee, Chair, 2010-present
  • Senior Awards Committee, Member, 2010-2012
  • English Curriculum Committee, Member, 2011-2012
  • English Enrollment Committee, Member, 2011-2012
  • Seniors Honors Project, Second Reader, Lauren Burch, 2011-2012
  • Composition Committee, Member, 2010-2011
  • Brown Bag Lunch Facilitator, Faculty Center The Merits of Incivility in University Discourse, November 2010
  • Recorder, Tenure hearing (October 2010; December 2014)
  • Judge, Auditions for 2010 WSU Poetry Slam Team for Intercollegiate Competition, September 2010

Professional Service

DISCIPLINARY FIELDS

  • Peer Reviewer, Urban Education, 2024
  • Editorial Advisory Board, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 2023-2024 (2 year term)
  • Peer Reviewer, English Journal, March 2021-present
  • Peer Reviewer, Jeunesse, December 2020
  • CAEP/National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Standards Review Committee Member 2018-2021
  • American Educational Research Association (AERA) Literature SIG Inaugural Dissertation Award Committee 2018
  • Program Reviewer, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference, 2018-2021
  • Geneva Smitherman Cultural Diversity Grant Conference on English Education (CEE), Award Committee 2017-18
  • Executive Committee Elected Member ELA Teacher Educators (ELATE), November 2017-November 2021
  • Peer Reviewer, English Teaching: Practice and Critique, 2017-present
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Study & Scrutiny, 2015-present
  • Editorial Review Board Member, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (JAAL), July 2015-present
  • Peer Reviewer, The ALAN Review, 2014-present
  • Peer Reviewer, Youth & Society, August 2015
  • Peer Reviewer, Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 2015
  • Program Reviewer, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference, 2014
  • Program Reviewer, American Educational Research Association (AERA), Annual Conferences, 2014 & 2015
  • English Ed. Grad. Student Research Respondent, National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), Nov. 2013
  • Book Award Committee Member, Middle East Outreach Council (MEOC), Best Youth Literature, 2013 & 2014
  • Peer Reviewer, English Education, 2012-present
  • Nominating Committee Elected Member, Conference on English Education (CEE), September 2012-August 2013
  • Member, Conference on English Education (CEE) Commission on Adolescent Literature, November 2012-present
  • State Representative, Assembly for Literature on Adolescents NCTE (ALAN), 2006-present
  • Program Reviewer, American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Annual Conference, 2009
  • Conference Session Chair, International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI), Urbana-Champagne, IL, 2009
  • Peer Reviewer, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE), 2008

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

  • Member, English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE, formerly CEE)
  • Member, National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE)
  • Member, New England Association of Teachers of English (NEATE)
Headshot of Professor Sarigianides.