Dr. Natasha Perez
Dr. Natasha Perez
Assistant Professor of LiteracyUrban EducationBiography
I am an educator and scholar who is deeply committed to equitable, culturally sustaining education for all. I am particularly interested in the ways that social contexts come to bear on the languages, literacies, and cultural identities of multilingual, transnational, and/or linguistic minority learners.
For example, my recent research has explored the many ways that languages, contexts, and histories interact for Cuban-American youth of different generations and what this means for their developing literacies across the domains of the home, school, community, and church as they become bilingual and biliterate.
My research interests stem from my life experience as a daughter of Cuban immigrants, and later, a teacher of children of immigrants in the super-diverse city of Miami, Florida, where I for seventeen years. In this context, I lived and worked amongst cultural hybridity and bilingualism as a way of life, a fact that continues to inform my teaching and research.
Degrees Earned
Florida International University, Bachelor's in English
University of Miami, Master's in Education with Concentration in Reading
Michigan State University, Ph.D. in Curriculum, Instruction and Teacher Education with a Concentration in Literacy
Courses Taught
MAT/READ 5321: Literacy in Middle and Secondary Contexts
MAT 5317: Reading Curriculum, Methods, Assessment, and Diagnosis
MAT 6370: Developing Literacy Teacher Educators
READ 3309: Reading in the Content Areas, 4-12
READ 3307: Language Arts Instruction in Writing, EC-12
Experience Qualifications
Juzwik, M., VanDerHeide, J., Macaluso, K., Smith, A., Perez, N., Macaluso, M., Caughlan, S., McKenzie, C., (2017). Constructing literacies in secondary English language arts curriculum: discourses, histories, ethics. In K. Hinchman & D. Appleman (Eds.), Adolescent literacy: A handbook of practice-based research. Guilford Press, New York.
Allerdyce, D., Perez, N., & Jackman, J. (2016). On the vocation of being human [Online Interview]. The Journal of School & Society, 3(1), 4.
Perez, N. (2016). Journeys of language and identity amongst Cuban-American bilinguals. Roundtable presentation at the Literacy Research Association (LRA) in Nashville, Tennessee.
Perez, N. & Macaluso, M. (2014). Transnational readings of a canonical text: A Dialogue between Odysseus and a Cuban immigrant student. Paper presented at the Literacy Research Association (LRA) in Marco Island, Florida.
Perez, N. (2014). High school students building translingual literacies through biblicism. Paper presented in M. M. Juzwik (Chair), Understanding Biblicism as Literacy Practice. Paper presented at the National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE), Maryland.
Perez, N. (2014). Dialogic interpretations of the Bible in two languages: Bible reading as a bridge to biliteracy. Paper presented at D. Davila (Chair), Dialogic Construction of Cosmopolitan and Religious Identities in Literacy Education. Paper presentation at the Literacy Research Association (LRA), Marco Island, Florida.
Perez, N. (2013). Translanguaging and translated literacies: Rosaura's story. Paper presented at Negotiating translingualism: examining the dynamic literacies of English language learners across the education pipeline. Symposium conducted at the National Council for Teachers of English
(NCTE), Boston, Massachusetts.
More Information
I have received numerous grants in support of my work, some of which are:
Partnership for Appalachian Girls' Education (PAGE) through Duke University, 2016 - (5,800)
Michigan State University College of Education Fellowship, 2015 - (5,000)
Janice Marston Endowed Scholarship at Michigan State University, 2014 - (2,300)
University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC) fellows travel grant 2013 - (1,500)
Nickerson Fellowship in Cultural Diversity and Minority Concerns, 2013 - (2,800) State University Urban Retention Fellowship, 2010 & 2013- (4,000)
Michigan State University Summer Research Fellowship, 2013 - (6,000) Tinker Fellowship for Tinker Fellowship for Fieldwork in Cuba, 2012 - (2,800)
Michigan State University College of Education Research Grant, 2012 - (5,000)
University of Miami Cuban Heritage Collection (CHC) Pre-Prospectus Fellowship, 2012 - (1,500)
Fellowship for Global Understanding in Botswana, Africa, Michigan State University, 2011