The College of Education is proud to support faculty educators and the incredible research and scholarship they produce. Dr. Anna Smith, Associate Professor in the School of Teaching and Learning, was recently recognized as a recipient of the Divergent Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy in a Digital Age. She is being honored for her innovation in research and dedication to both the theoretical and practical study of literacies in digital spaces.
Appears InThe Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age was established in 2014 to recognize and celebrate the contributions of educators and scholars diverging from the traditional pedagogies and research approaches to forward understandings of literacy.
“We received a record number of nominees for the 2025 class,” shared Dr. Shelbie Witte, Senior Director of Outreach and Teacher Education at Oklahoma State University, and founding director of the Initiative. “The educators, librarians, community organizers, K12 educators, college and career leaders, and students honored by this recognition are transformational difference-makers in the field of literacy.”
This award recognizes Smith for leading multiple digital projects connecting stakeholders in equity-oriented collaborations to support critical approaches to education in a post-digital era, including the Education Now Lab.
“I have long admired the scholarship of the recipients of the Divergent Awards from the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age, and it is a distinct honor to be counted among them,” said Smith. “I share this recognition with the many collaborators over the years with whom I have been lucky enough to research, design, and learn.”
Smith has made several contributions to scholarship in literacies, writing, and critical digital platform studies. Her research has previously been recognized by the Literacy Research Association with the 2018 Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy. Smith has also co-authored Developing Writers: Teaching and Learning in the Digital Age and is the co-editor of the Handbook of Writing, Literacies, and Education in Digital Cultures. Currently, she serves as a lead co-editor of Literacy Research: Theory, Method, and Practice for volumes 73-77.
Smith has most recently led a guest editorial team for the special issue “Artificial Intelligence and Composing Just Education Futures” of English Teaching: Practice and Critique.
Smith and the other honorees will share their work as part of the Literacy in a Digital Age lecture series in April 2025.*
*News related content in this work is provided by the Initiative for Literacy in a Digital Age
