The Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is pleased to announce the Provost Fellow on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to the Faculty Center, Dr. Rachael Shapiro.
Dr. Rachael Shapiro has focused her research, teaching, and service on social justice, linguistic diversity, and antiracist pedagogy for fifteen years. She holds a PhD in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric from Syracuse University (2015), and an MA in English with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University (2008). At Rowan, she applies antiracist teaching strategies in undergraduate and graduate courses in the Writing Arts department, as well as in her work with preservice K-5 teachers in the Literacy Studies program. She has led and served on DEI committees across the university, including the Senate Diversity Committee, the Division of DEI Committee on Promoting and Supporting Inclusive Teaching, Scholarship, and Professional Development, the Edelman College of Communication and Creative Arts DEI Committee, and the Writing Arts Diversity Council
In her scholarship, Dr. Shapiro advocates for linguistic agency and justice for BIPOC, multilingual, and non-standard language users. Other areas of scholarly expertise include literacy studies, transnational feminism, digital writing, basic writing, critical pedagogy, and composition pedagogy. Dr. Shapiro is the recipient of the 2020 Richard C. Ohmann Award for Outstanding Article in College English, the plenary journal of English studies. You can read her work there, as well as in journals like Composition Forum and Literacy in Composition Studies. She has a co-authored chapter titled “Averting Colorblind Translingualism” in the forthcoming collection Racing Translingualism in Composition: Toward a Race-Conscious Translingualism.
In her role as Provost Fellow on DEI to the Faculty Center, some of Dr. Shapiro’s responsibilities will include providing joint leadership and direction for the Faculty Center staff in the area of DEI, assisting academic departments and faculty with course design and curriculum development to promote anti-racism, culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy and creating a faculty cohort prepared to join a faculty recruitment initiative.